In my last column I passed along a story of Tom Hardy illustrating how an incident can be seen from two points of view. Coincidentally, about the same time Linda Lodato shared with me an illustration of how time can produce two different points of view.
Linda is an attractive woman who was widowed at an early age. She is also what I think of as one of us “closet poets.” Events and emotions in our lives seem to find their way to paper, often in rhyme and, occasionally, even in real poetry. We make no value judgments; we just put it down.
Linda”s two different viewpoints stem from a time when she appeared to be experiencing love “the second time around.” The trouble was it turned out to be a rocky road to romance. Linda brought me two examples of her poems during that period and bravely gave me permission to quote from them. They do indicate how two points of view can be dramatic for one person. In the first bloom of romance she writes:
“I think we may have met in a gentler time of life.
He may have been my husband and I his loving wife;
Or perhaps he was a knight, and I his lady fair;
But one thing is surely certain; a great love we once did share.
For no feeling more intense could be from just one life;
It must transcend the ages to have overcome the strife.”
She goes on later to write:
“His spirit is his beauty, for it soars o”er mountains high,
And my love it carries with it, as if it, too, could fly.”
But later, after that high-flying love plummets to earth, she writes:
“Our love was strong; it should have been;
The fact it”s not is such a sin.
We tried and tried to no avail;
When one would try, the other would fail.
A match made in heaven ended in hell;
We tried to run, but stumbled and fell …
It left each of us wondering what went wrong;
It seemed like a bad country western song!”
Yep, time can surely change one person”s point of view, and everybody can probably think of at least one example of that from his own life. Those writers of country western songs embellish it with “sighin”, lyin”, cryin” and dying.” Novelists expand it into a long, sometimes gripping tale. Instrumentalists pour their hearts into haunting melodies. Most of us just clamp our mouths shut, pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and keep on keeping on, don”t we?
But sometimes the closet poet, like Linda, just puts it down on paper, and it seems to serve a good purpose. I wonder what it is about “versifying” that liberates us, soothes us, vindicates us and describes us. I often wonder how many others of us are out there, scribbling our thoughts in rhyme or blank verse. I strongly suspect we have more company than we realize. I”m also pretty certain we represent many points of view.
Betty Boyls Stone is a freelance writer, who grew up in Columbus.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
