This week, I am possessed by a single stanza of song lyric from U2's new song "Moment of Surrender":
To let the horses roam free
Playing with the fire
Till the fire played with me
This language does what I love most. It threads a mysterious narrative that is engaging enough to keep me on the edge of my seat listening for what might come next. I am branded by the heat of these images and keep returning to them because they are open-ended enough to leave room for me in this story.
And I nearly toppled from the edge of my seat onto the floor when the song took me here:
that's begging to get back
to my heart
to the rhythm of my soul
to the rhythm of my consciousness
to the rhythm of Yes
to the release from control
Body as begging bowl. Bono, you've outdone yourself.
Most of us have been told to show, not tell in our poems. I write and teach about the pros and cons of each. In this example of a single "show" followed by a consecutive string of "tell," I believe the first metaphor is powerful enough to carry everything that follows without the dangerous weight of explanation tuning out the listener.
What do you think?




