Alone Nobody Lives Poem by gershon hepner

ALONE NOBODY LIVES


A friend suggested as a title
of Keith's new book My Life, but he
found this too long in its recital,
as said: "Why don't we let it be
just life, without the My, instead? "
How great the difference between My
in front of Life and My unsaid!
If we are smart perhaps we try
to think of our lives as our own,
but they are an important part
of other narratives. Alone
nobody lives. We're either cart
or horse in other narratives,
and pulled or pull, that's why My Life
is incorrect. Whoever lives
a life as husband or a wife
knows just how true this is, and he
or she who doesn't ought to know.
In front of Life, My ought to be
deleted-it should go below.

Janet Maslin writes about Keith Richards's autobiography, which he wrote with the help of a journalist called James Fox ("Memories to Burn" NYT,10/24/10) :

As for calling the book "Life, " Mr. Richards did some editing there too. "My Life" was what the book was to be called. "I said ‘I tell you what, just cut off the ‘My, ' and you've got a title, " he says. He might just as appropriately have used another title he likes, "Keep It Dark." But, he says, "I'm saving it for a song."


10/28/10 #10,022