Truth Told In A Slant Poem by gershon hepner

We can tell more by implying
than by being quite explicit.
Though it always is illicit
to elude the truth lying,
stronger point are made if you
withhold some information in
the hope that stories that you spin
tell facts that count and point of view
obliquely. Truth told in a slant,
as Emily once said, is far
more powerful than facts that are
like scattershot instead of scant.

Inspired by an interview by Tobias Wolff on KUSC this morning, in which he compared the panoramic writing of Tolstoy with the sharply focused glimpses of truth presented by Chekhov. Wolff prefers Chekhov’s approach, whose application, he claims, is fundamental in his own, and probably all successful, short stories.

3/4/09