Never did the street lights seem so far apart
as they did when she would run between them
fast on the first set, slow on the second
that perfect moment between day and night
It is impossible to cling to both sides
but if she selects one, she admits
the other is not right.
So she runs like they ran at 6 a.m.
pretends not to hear his bitter words
about how she’d stolen his life.
But they pound in her head
as her feet carry her when her heart can’t.
Fall is coming, there’s a change in the air
She runs fast as she can from all the pain
away from that summer’s sin
And when winter is silent and dark,
she imagines, he will look through frosty windows,
feel a chill as the light comes on an instant too late.
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See Chris’ street lights poem here.
Comments
4 responses to “The moment after all goes dark”
The thing with a poem to me is ten people can read a poem and get something completely different out of it. With songs it’s pretty straightforward most of the time.
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Here’s my interpretation of the poem: (I haven’t done this since college 🙂 )
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The main idea of the poem is about an insecure female who is carrying all the weight for a relationship that is not working or maybe that has already ended. The guy uses the phrase “she’d stolen his life” as a way to leave without any guilt and also as a way too put her life on hold why he explores different relationships.
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The images of the seasons made me think of:
Summer = hot & sinful / lust & passion / new love
Fall = release & salvation / reflection / a feeling of sudden calmness
Winter = loneliness for a life that’s never going to happen.
Day = Happiness and optimistic feelings
Night = cold dark loneliness of memories that won’t go away
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Well, I don’t know if that’s way you had in mind, but that’s what I got out of it. Now I get to get the authors feedback, right?
The thing with a poem to me is ten people can read a poem and get something completely different out of it. With songs it’s pretty straightforward most of the time.
————-
Here’s my interpretation of the poem: (I haven’t done this since college 🙂 )
————-
The main idea of the poem is about an insecure female who is carrying all the weight for a relationship that is not working or maybe that has already ended. The guy uses the phrase “she’d stolen his life” as a way to leave without any guilt and also as a way too put her life on hold why he explores different relationships.
————-
The images of the seasons made me think of:
Summer = hot & sinful / lust & passion / new love
Fall = release & salvation / reflection / a feeling of sudden calmness
Winter = loneliness for a life that’s never going to happen.
Day = Happiness and optimistic feelings
Night = cold dark loneliness of memories that won’t go away
————-
Well, I don’t know if that’s way you had in mind, but that’s what I got out of it. Now I get to get the authors feedback, right?
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this so closely. That means so much. Your analysis was dead on. A little more to it, if you’re interested:
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= With the running, I was trying to create a feel that the woman in the poem felt as if she were accomplishing something: By running away from her heartache, she was leaving it behind and moving toward her new life. However, as we all know it is never that simple and as she’s merely running between street lights, she’s not really going very far …
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= She’s being forced to choose between a life with this person and one without. Hence the fast between some street lights, slow between others – two different paces, two different choices, two different benefits (cardio vs. muscle building on the running, being with him and continuing to hurt vs. getting the chance to try to move on but having to life without him in the parallel). She’s also running alone and they used to run together. She runs as an alternative to heartbreak.
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= She’s imagining the winter as a lonely time, as you noticed – but she’s also hoping that he will realize by then what a mistake he made in treating her the way he did.
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this so closely. That means so much. Your analysis was dead on. A little more to it, if you’re interested:
————
= With the running, I was trying to create a feel that the woman in the poem felt as if she were accomplishing something: By running away from her heartache, she was leaving it behind and moving toward her new life. However, as we all know it is never that simple and as she’s merely running between street lights, she’s not really going very far …
————
= She’s being forced to choose between a life with this person and one without. Hence the fast between some street lights, slow between others – two different paces, two different choices, two different benefits (cardio vs. muscle building on the running, being with him and continuing to hurt vs. getting the chance to try to move on but having to life without him in the parallel). She’s also running alone and they used to run together. She runs as an alternative to heartbreak.
————
= She’s imagining the winter as a lonely time, as you noticed – but she’s also hoping that he will realize by then what a mistake he made in treating her the way he did.