The Old Music Book: Poem

One day in year 2006
While at an antique store
I came across a music book
One of which I’d seen before

John Thompson’s Third Grade Piano
Was my favorite way back when
My Mother did her best to give
Me a lesson now and then

I bought the book in memory
Of a simpler and happy age
And I enjoyed the dates the Teacher wrote
On the corner of a page

Handwritten on the first song
The date of lesson taught
It was May 6, 1954
I wasn’t yet a thought

And I noticed on page fifty
As I viewed the “Watchman’s Song”
The Opera and it’s Number matched
The birth date of my son

I placed the book in the piano bench
Where it’s been all of this time
Not knowing in 2014
It would confirm a friend of mine

This friend came out of nowhere
A recent and nice surprise
But our meeting had been on its way
Since 1955

You see, one night I was listening
To my Bible on CD
A person met a Watchman
While in search of destiny

I got out that old music book
To the “Watchman’s Song” I turned
I looked on one page forward
But nothing was absurd

But when I turned just one page back
Atop the stanza’s end
A handwritten date from 1955
It was the birth date of my friend

To think of everything it took
For such a time as this
A Teacher back in “55”
Wrote a date I couldn’t miss

And the book would make it’s journey
To the place where I would be
Fifty-one years later
And would buy it happily

It's been eight years since I bought that book
And though a lot of things have changed
There’s one thing I’m quite sure of
My new friend was pre-arranged

I thought it was worth mentioning the name of the song that my friend's birth date was written on is "The Skater's Waltz". I've added a video below of the arrangement from the John Thompson music book.