RE: A Ballad about a Ballad, in Two Parts
Hi I'm back. I'm really affected by your comment and I want to say more.
Your Aunt. So much is gone when a person dies. All they knew, all they could have said, all they wanted to say. Your aunt wanted to show her concern for you, there's nothing more loving than that.
My character said all he had always wanted to be, but was not. Then at the last he became a sage. There's that sage deep within each of us. I think that's what my story was trying to say, especially in the second 'part'.
Our suits come in all sizes,
and some of us wear them well,
but all of us have true stories
that come squeaky clean when we tell.
I didn't really know why I felt compelled to include that until now.
You chose some of my favorite lines to highlight.
The best comments teach me something I didn't even know about my own work. You've written one of those.
That leaped out at me too - what a profound insight - all of us have true stories
that come squeaky clean when we tell. Not because we lie and tell only the parts that make us look good, but because we may leave out some of the sordid details and focus on the good - but I'm getting lost now in the theology of poetry and the distillation of the truth. That's the word I was after. In the telling, these stories may be distilled - purified, condensed - if that makes sense!
It also reminds me of the sacrament of Confession: it is in the telling that we come "clean."
To focus on the good brings us closer to truth. I like that.