The perfect metaphor
authorizes its signal, a whimsical
harmony sung in four parts
blended to elation, one message
in many voices. Insight
can delight from any perspective,
though I may strain
in falsetto
for a note just out of
reach – or
out of time.
When can a defeated shout
reside, a revelation weighed
down by a poet’s talent, or,
worse, fancy? We are both
best equipped and worst
suited to edit
ourselves
in a fervor just out of
control – or
out of time.
(c) 2019 by Phillip Knight Scott
Nicely turned. How difficult indeed to strike that 4-part note just so. Every good poet I know is dogged by questions of transmission and calibration.
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Yes indeed, can’t argue with that.
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Don’t even try to argue
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Ah, yes. The agony of the perfect metaphor.
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To find the perfect metaphor can not be done by editing… that is why poems are different from prose.
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I read this in the voice(s) of a barbershop quartet. 🙂
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