on a phone conversation
i heard his voice in the singing sound of his words,
written on virgin paper, believing i knew
how to find his in a thousand voices, but
i picked up the phone, and i heard a different voice,
less sure of its words, broken, and always searching
the only expression he had to convey what he meant.
On a phone conversation
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tom.d.stiller
- Posts: 1213
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2003 8:18 am
- Location: ... between the lines ...
- Contact:
I KNOW I do.
This takes me instantly to someone's telling me [and sounding disappointed, as well] "You sound so different from what I expected." I guess he expected, well, I don't what he expected. What I do know is that, based on my postings [this was on the Sony Board, though as I'm recalling he did show up here for a brief period], one night when we were posting in quick succession [having a conversation], he e-mailed me and, with a very strong sense of urgency, gave me his phone # and asked me to please call him ASAP. Well, no idea of exactly why, but having communicated with him over a long period of time on the Board [through that time, he'd survived the ending of several relationships, that seemed to always come with rather high expectations on his part], I went ahead and called him [within his "right now, if possible" request].
I had to laugh when the first words out of his mouth were what I've already quoted above. I asked what he'd expected, and he said, "I don't know. Just different." Well, it seemed pretty clear that he probably had conjured this image of a "late night jazz d.j. voice" [all my respect to dear Jo on that] ~ sultry, self-assured, whatever ~ however, what he got [by my intent, due to my uncertainty as to the core reason for this plea] was a friendly and chipper, sing-songy voice. Oh, dear.
Knowing, from knowing myself, how much easier it is for me to flow in writing than in conversation, I can also relate to your poem, Tom. I rely on the written word ~ a lot ~ to express myself. I think we all develop our images of what we 'know' someone will 'sound' like. Then, reality hits. I like this poem a lot for your having thought to address this issue at all; the way it addresses it head-on; and the unique way you've done so.
~ Elizabeth
This takes me instantly to someone's telling me [and sounding disappointed, as well] "You sound so different from what I expected." I guess he expected, well, I don't what he expected. What I do know is that, based on my postings [this was on the Sony Board, though as I'm recalling he did show up here for a brief period], one night when we were posting in quick succession [having a conversation], he e-mailed me and, with a very strong sense of urgency, gave me his phone # and asked me to please call him ASAP. Well, no idea of exactly why, but having communicated with him over a long period of time on the Board [through that time, he'd survived the ending of several relationships, that seemed to always come with rather high expectations on his part], I went ahead and called him [within his "right now, if possible" request].
I had to laugh when the first words out of his mouth were what I've already quoted above. I asked what he'd expected, and he said, "I don't know. Just different." Well, it seemed pretty clear that he probably had conjured this image of a "late night jazz d.j. voice" [all my respect to dear Jo on that] ~ sultry, self-assured, whatever ~ however, what he got [by my intent, due to my uncertainty as to the core reason for this plea] was a friendly and chipper, sing-songy voice. Oh, dear.
Knowing, from knowing myself, how much easier it is for me to flow in writing than in conversation, I can also relate to your poem, Tom. I rely on the written word ~ a lot ~ to express myself. I think we all develop our images of what we 'know' someone will 'sound' like. Then, reality hits. I like this poem a lot for your having thought to address this issue at all; the way it addresses it head-on; and the unique way you've done so.
~ Elizabeth