I was in a hurry when I read “time isn’t the same for everyone.” It became “time isn’t for everyone” as though time were an acquired taste like caviar or Beethoven’s late string quartets. In 1815 Johann Nepomuk Mäelzel sent his newly-patented metronome to Beethoven. (He also provided ear trumpets for the increasingly deaf composer.) Beethoven went back and added metronome markings to his scores, resulting in almost unplayable passages at breakneck tempo. Some musicologists have speculated that Ludwig’s metronome was mis-calibrated.

Concerning the nuances of time, perhaps one needs the proverbial 10,000 hours to master them. Let’s say I allot ninety minutes daily to develop a greater appreciation by sleeping ninety minutes less. Which works out to 8¼ years (assuming a seven-day work week for my 10,000 hours). Well, maybe time is a limited extravagance, though my friend said of New York City subways, I’ve stayed on the local because why go nowhere faster. It’s only now I notice my title “On Time” meaning “On the Subject of Time” and not “Punctual.” Was Beethoven punctual? (He could be irascible.) On his deathbed the composer lamented a recent gift of twelve bottles of wine from his publisher: “Pity, pity, too late.”

Joel Thomas Katz

lives in Palo Alto, California. His poems have appeared in Sand Hill Review, Montserrat Review, West Wind Review, Spillway, and Red Wheelbarrow. His latest books are Aqueduct (2023) and Erase | Endure (2020), both published by Dutch Poet Press. Joel has also co-translated poems by contemporary Dutch poets Ingmar Heytze and Saskia Stehouwer.

Author’s website: www.joelthomaskatz.com/