“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince.
“You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me—like that—in the grass, I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstanding. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day….”
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7 comments:
Words are the source of misunderstandings- no doubt. Especially when they are the words of others put in your mouth.
This made me cry all day plus I'm sick and cold. Please put the poem back up.
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Do you need more tea?
Loudon, you make me cry all the time. God for days I dreamt I was that tightrope walking girl;)
I put the poem on the writing blog. It is just a click away.
Hope you feel better. And I am thinking tonight I will blow off AWP and come to Seattle instead to watch that movie with you
Theresa,
When I read this it reminded me of one of my own poems, called "How to Talk to a Lion". When it was recently critiqued, by someone I respect immensely, she told me I was writing as if I was the lion, knew what the lion was talking about, putting my words in the lion's mouth- personifying basically. So instead of being crass, barging ahead and writing as if I knew what the lion was thinking, I rethought and rewrote the poem. She was right. The poem is better for the effort made, as I am through the introspection.
Ginger, Lucille Clifton has an exercise like that—and she wrote amazing fox poems.
The good thing is, when you find someone willing to wait, to be still and move closer when it feels safe-- it is an amazing thing.
i have always loved and will always love that book. so much wisdom in it. m
The interesting thing is one can imagine, it's what we all do in the absence of experience. I'm not a lion. Never been there. I don't know, but I am willing to learn, to accept that I don't, that that's OK and move on from there.
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