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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

What You Can Hear in a Seashell

Day nineteen's Napowrimo challenge is to take inspiration from one of a list of fanciful seashell names.  I am immediately drawn to a name suggesting poignance:
Unequal Bittersweet. Will I be able to put what I felt, in words?

Unequal Bittersweet       

Now the term 'bittersweet' is an oxymoron, if I ever heard one.
In recipedic terms, I suppose it could translate 'half bitter, half sweet.'
Equal parts.  
But in the life of the heart, you know bittersweet is never equal.

Neither equal in concept, of course, it's a contradiction in terms,
nor gender, not to mention quality, intention, ability,
nebulous words.
When you start to define it, meaning evaporates into the clouds.

But in music, you can suppose that it's three against two, 
but I think the point is for the numbers to complement each other,
counterpoint.
Though counterpoint in music is a different thing altogether.

Bittersweet could be a happy theme above a serious one,
swelling in joy, wallowing in sorrow, arguing the truth,
Ostinatos, melodies,
Different voices striving together to sing the same song.

                                                                ---Shirley Smith Franklin

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