the long tale - for anecdote

It was a tricky assignment. Damn tricky. Anecdote came back to me regarding the offer. And asked for a poem. About all of them.

The research behind this was kinda cool. I asked all the Anecdoters to keep experience diaries for a week - what they felt, what they saw & heard & smelt & tasted & touched, adding photos where appropriate. All that info is in here somewhere. Although in hindsight I'd probably have run the diaries for a month rather than just a week if possible. People need some time to loosen up.

The Long Tale

Once upon a time,
a long way away,
there were five stories.
It has been said that
there are only seven plots
in our word world
but all I know is that
there were these five stories.

Each story started off as a whisper,
a rumour then a rumour of a rumor.
As each story was told and retold,
it grew and grew and grew.

There are boy stories and girl stories,
grown up stories and baby stories
(and just to be clear on this:
a boy story is not the same
as a story about boys).

Boy stories are loud and blue.
Their ends are loose and untied.
Events happen with little thought.
a blur of testosterone and muddy knees.

Girl stories are more considered,
in the pink not necessarily rose-tinted.
Their details finer, their voices are softer.
They need light and air as much as boys.

Old stories are wrinkled
with layers of circumstance.
They have been passed from mouth to ear to mouth.
Some say that the old stories are the best.

Baby stories are never fully formed.
They sit in bits and grow in fits.
Their meaning hardens with the calcium of time
and you can never tell how they will turn out.

Once upon a time,
there were five stories
and although they have started,
they aren't finished yet.
Listen.

Download the mp3