! Homage To A Not Unknown Poet

Straightway - it's the tone. Even; quiet but clear; is it writing, or is it talking? As if to family: you're being filled in on what happened yesterday or last week; it's a continuation of what you last spoke of; so no 'tone' about the tone; you have a background of a lifetime's love not to need to talk about; you're friends even before you are family if you know what I mean; no family relationships hovering like ghosts like your mother never quite stopped sibling squabbling with your aunt; it's harmless really - a silly evocation of childhood and no-one else's concern; so, good. The no-tone tone: you're family, so the voice expects you to be interested enough to read even if it's something to tell another family member later whom it would concern more. So no elaborations, no false sentiment, but a little dry comment like a dry white wine perhaps, they'll have the background for because you're family. That even tone - dull? No, not dull - a quirky, individual voice that tells a story deadpan that makes you howl with laughter; no, never dull.. The details: those events, those small happinesses, small sweetnesses (it sounds better in French - petits bonheurs, petites douceurs) , the spoken words from open heart to open heart which are the greatness of our real, real life; what's in the tidy drawers of the heart when the house-clearers finally arrive. And all around this family message to you who read, called a poem, quietly, love.