Poor Speaker
Poor Speaker
Original Text
Killarnoe
1I understand you.
2I get what you’re trying to say.
3What you’re trying to say is you want me to get it.
4I get it. You want me
5to understand. You want me to know
6not the words, but what’s behind them. Got it.
7You’re trying to tell me
8what you want me to hear. What I
9hear is all words, but that’s not all there is.
10I totally comprehend.
11There’s a comprehensive totality
12beyond, or above, or within, or outside
13whatever you just said.
14Yes, yes. Your vocabulary can’t put the nuance
15on the fine feeling you wish to express.
16Not that you’re feeling fine, I know.
17Rather, the feeling is fine like a fine point. Right.
18That’s the point. I get it. If you could say so, you would.
19You still want me to understand?
20I told you from the beginning. I’m with you.
21I got it. Why keep going on? It’s gotten. It’s all good.
Publication Start Year
2006
Publication Notes
(forthcoming)
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2006
Form
Special Copyright
Copyright © Sonnet L'Abbé 2006. Not to be republished without permission of the poet.