The Passage- Make the best Bad Choice
Chapter 3 of We Swallow Light
It’s Tree Langdon from Medium and LinkedIn.
We Swallow Light is a book of poetry that is arranged in an unusual way. Most poetry collections are sorted by topic or theme.
We Swallow Light: Poems for introverts and lonely hearts (Life Poetry)
These poems are arranged like a novel.
The chapters follow a story thread, similar to a memoir. Here are the chapter titles:
The Binding
Surrender
The Passage
The Rituals
Choosing Love
When I studied the Story Grid, I learned about the 5 commandments of storytelling. I’ve applied them to this book of poems.
The third chapter is The Passage, which reveals a Crisis that forces the protagonist to make a choice in the story. The Crisis forces the protagonist to reveal their true character.
The protagonist has to choose between two mutually exclusive options — two bad choices. Each choice has meaningful stakes attached, so it’s not easy for them to go forward. Once the choice is made, they can’t go back.
This is sometimes referred to as the: best bad choice.
Here’s a quote from one of the poems:
Forgive
“ I recalled the wrongs
and sliced open half-healed wounds.
I swam deeply in the seething pool
and swallowed daily doses
of reminders and remembering
choking on the bitterness.
My inoculation,
a ward against hope,
on guard against love.
It shut me down.
Lock.”
I hope you like this take on the third chapter of the book.
On Medium…
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