Between The Lines

Rudyard Kipling



Rudyard Kipling quoted from a speech, in
The Times, February 15, 1923



Yesterday I had  the above Kipling quote on my mind.  I ran across the following poem later in the day when I was going through some old papers.  After reading it I thought of adding it to this post, it seemed a perfect fit.  I had forgotten about Clint writing it around 1998.  This poem is written in The Rondeau form as was the famous poem, "In Flander's Fields".



Between The Lines


Between the lines the truth does lie
In understated, silent, sly
    Suggestion; thus 'tis hard to know
    Exact explanations, and so
We wonder whether, what...and why.

We read and listen; then do try
To interpret meaning, and spy
     Understanding beyond, below,
               Between the lines.

Weigh woven words which may belie
The thoughts that underneath them fly
     Averse; so secretly they sow
     Innate insights, inklings which grow---
Lying, lurking with spectral sigh...
             Between the lines.

~Clint Ellison
   1998



Clint's computer has been "acting up".  A few months ago while visiting my mom in LaFollette, I stopped by a computer repair shop.  The guy was especially nice and helpful. I had told him I was quoted a price of $80 to uninstall and reinstall a new security system.  He suggested the free version of Avast and even made me a CD to use when I was ready to install it...totally free!  I offered to pay him and thanked him profusely.   I had computer repair bills in Plano, TX, over $300!

Yesterday Clint dropped his computer off at this shop and I visited mom for over an hour.  I was more upset about one of the residents there than seeing my mom, this man came rolling in near us in his wheelchair, he must have had Parkinson's Disease. I talked to him, asking him his name, etc. I was struck by how ratty and stained looking his pants were.  I was thinking I needed to buy the man a new pair of pants and was surprised that he was wearing such old ones.  I was telling my sister this story, she kinda laughed a little and said that his family could probably not do a thing with him, he probably wanted to wear only that pair of pants.  This pants looked like they were the bottom half of his leisure suit from the 1970s. (My sister was a nurse in geriatrics for 30 years)

Last night I had a little bit of a pity party of one ... just thinking about things.  Clint was the uninvited "guest" to the "party".  I can do without these kinds of "parties" and try not to "host" too many of them.  My daughter called and had us laughing earlier in the evening, she was describing her massage experience.  She was telling how she had to fight with all her might to not laugh when the guy was touching the arches of her feet. I know the feeling, I would have been the same way. 

I'll end with a bit a good news, I completed a new portrait and it is in the mail!  Next  comes the oil painting which is to hang over our mantel.

☺