{"id":178,"date":"2024-04-08T19:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T19:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/?p=178"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:20:04","slug":"the-right-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/08\/the-right-word\/","title":{"rendered":"The Right Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe Right Word\u201d is a song from my new show, LIFE REPHRASED, <\/em>which is about the journey of Tony. an insecure, word-besotted poet, journalist and playwright, who finds who he is\u2014and the words for who he is\u2014through the passion and conflict he experiences with the three women in his life. \u2013J. Linn Allen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cThe Right Word\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

THERE HAS TO BE A WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A WORD THAT PUTS THE THING IN PLACE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WITHOUT WHICH THERE IS ONLY SPACE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAT\u2019S LEFT UNFORMED WITHOUT A TRACE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OF WHAT MIGHT BE OR MIGHT HAVE BEEN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY WILL OR GRACE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PERFECT THING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO PASSIONATELY EMBRACE,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PERCEIVED UNSHADOWED AND UNBLURRED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BECAUSE THERE WAS THE PERFECT WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M LOOKING FOR THE WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAT TELLS ME WHO I AM AND HOW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I CAME TO BE AND WHERE I\u2019LL GO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>AND LETS ME KNOW MY MIND IS FOLLOWING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE FLOW IT SHOULD <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–OR NO.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I CAN\u2019T SLOW DOWN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNTIL I\u2019M ANCHORED SOLIDLY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNTIL IN MY GEOMETRY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PROBLEM OF THE WORD FOR ME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IS SOLVED PRECISELY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

QED.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

BUT WHAT IF FINDING <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAT RIGHT WORD OR PHRASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OBLITERATES WHAT I DEFINE,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRANSFIXING PREMATURELY <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT\u2019S MOVED AWAY ALREADY,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SHED THE SHELL OF MEANING I IMPOSE,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACCRUING LIFE THAT GROWS AND SHOWS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER POSE, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANOTHER SET OF CLOTHES,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND I REACH SPEECHLESS,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EMPTY AND EXPOSED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEARCHING FOR THE WORD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOREVER UNDISCLOSED?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

I\u2019M WHAT I SAY I AM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND YOU ARE WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT ALSO YOU ARE WHAT I SAY <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOU ARE, AND I AM WHAT YOU SAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I AM–BOTH PROPOSITIONS TRUE.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVENTUALLY <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WE MUST AGREE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND FIND A MUTUALITY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OF YOU AND ME <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE NOUNS AND VERBS AND ADJECTIVES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AND SOUNDS THAT CAPTURE US <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WITH CLARITY <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COMPLETELY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FUNDAMENTALLY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESSENTIALLY.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Right Word\u201d is a song from my new show, LIFE REPHRASED, which is about the journey of Tony. an insecure, word-besotted poet, journalist and playwright, who finds who he is\u2014and the words for who he is\u2014through the passion and conflict he experiences with the three women in his life. \u2013J. Linn Allen \u00a0\u201cThe Right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lyrics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jlinnallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}