Friday, February 21, 2014

Between The Lines


believing in love as a universal language
until I met you, finding ourselves
in a paradox of our own making
for we were inept at communication
the accent all wrong

I . . .

unable to see the words "I Love You"
through the lyrics of a song

you . . .

unable to hear the words "I Love You"
penned of emotions laid bare on paper

each failing to connect the dots
to read between the lines of longing and denial
trapped in a dance of mixed signals and flirtation
 
Linking up with Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

30 comments:

  1. And so much lost in the over-cautiousness of youth, perhaps. I often think back on the opportunities I probably missed out on, because I never said how I felt when I should have.

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    1. I know exactly what you mean about missed opportunities. I definitely had a hard time saying how I felt and could only allude to it in writing.

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  2. Love this - my poem is about mixed signals too.....

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  3. Ohhh the frustration of the inability to communicate your feelings to someone else who may feel similar but is on a different wavelength emotionally...the story of my early life. I was so awkward and its one of those "if I had it to do over again" things. This was spot on, compelling in its nature and exactly the type of thing I was looking for. Thanks for taking the challenge today, I really appreciate it.

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    1. This was drawn from experiences in my late teens, early 20's. Thanks for the great comment and for the prompt.

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  4. Oh that baggage we carry around.. so as not to understand, or misinterpret a signal, something said. I still do it, read to much or too little into things. Nicely done..

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  5. Missing each other even while aiming is very frustrating and I love the way you lay that out in this poem. Yet how wonderful when you understand each other's language--and worth waiting for.

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  6. This really moved me, Kathryn!! So often one or the other fails to connect the dots.

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    1. Thank you Mary, this prompt took me back to my early twenty's and the awkwardness and miscommunication that comes with being young.

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  7. Oh, yes, those dots...this is frustrating! I think this is why I found this challenge hard. Well Done

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  8. it is a tragedy to be on different wavelengths and miscommunicate.

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    1. . . . it can be so frustrating, but sometimes the miscommunication tells you something.

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  9. ah...so close and yet...
    the mark is missed...the words never said...never heard...
    never plain enough...its the ones never said that scare me.

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  10. And, of course ... There are some loves never meant to be. I enjoyed this.

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  11. "trapped in a dance of mixed signals and flirtation"

    Bingo! you nailed it there

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  12. Shortly, Kathryn, you both have lost the head....Love your poem <3

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  13. love this piece. had a lovely peruse through your blog, your poetry is magical. it's so nice to see a writer is also an aspiring artist!

    stacy lynn mar
    http://warningthestars.blogspot.com/

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  14. Beautiful words and photography ~ Sometimes we missed out on opportunities for we failed to say or hear them when we should have ~ Happy weekend Kathryn ~

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    1. Happy weekend to you too. Those missed opportunities . . . sometimes good, sometimes bad.

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  15. Beautiful.

    My weakness is communication, too.

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  16. first, a really cool image. I had to double take to see what it shows. second, the split and yearning between *you* and *I* is palpable ~

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    1. Thanks Michael, spent some time playing around with an image for this.

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  17. This happens a lot of times...Love the image...fits the words perfectily

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  18. oh that is tough... communication is not easy and it's done on many different levels and sometimes it's not easy to "hear" what the other really wants to say

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  19. Yes, extremely emotional and moving. The difficulties of human communication - the ways we mis-hear and mis-judge those we love. Beautiful.

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    1. Thanks Brenda, miscommunication seems something many of us can relate to.

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