High school taught me to hate poetry. Why couldn’t a blue shirt just be a blue shirt because the author had to put him in a shirt and there was a blue one on the floor? No, apparently every word had a different meaning and it must be analyzed in minutia. Gag!Yes, I understand subtext but I like it best unexamined to death.
So I avoided poetry and anything associated with that most evil of all words, Literature. Shudder. Such pretentious BS and don’t even get me started on the snobs who like to discourse on it.
I love pop culture. It soothes my inner savage by making things understandable and enjoyable for the masses. No elitism here.
So while the brownnosers looked to impress teachers with their knowledge of Middle English, I turned up the radio on pop music and threw myself in pastel and preppy masses before teasing my hair into a great big mass on my head (Don’t judge me, it was the 80s).
And then a funny thing happened.
Between the drumbeats and guitar strings, I fell in love with words. Song writers are modern poets. Yes, every word has meaning but I don’t need to analyze it, I just need to fall into it. Admiring the prose just like I do lines from my two favorite poets–Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Yes, I still read poetry and, thankfully, the nausea and cold sweats from high school are usually absent.
Why am I mentioning this now? Because I found a song on Youtube by David Nail (The Sound of a Million Dreams) that is one of the things I’d wish I’d written. While it’s about songwriters and singers, I think the lyrics in the chorus echo the ambition of every artist whether they use words, oils on canvas or pen and ink. So click on the link and enjoy the video.
I’ve never heard of David Nail. He’s a good singer. Songwriters are poets but more than that, any great song, singer, poet or writer has the ability to tell a story. Many aspire to be story tellers but I don’t think it’s something one can learn too easily. I think good story tellers are born that way. Yes, you are a good story teller.
Ah, shucks! Thanks. Now why are you sucking up?:-)
He’s one of the singers I stalk on youtube since the radio doesn’t play him much out here.