NEW song/poem "Paralysis By Analysis"...please critique and describe meaning...?

Question

PARALYSIS BY ANALYSIS
by Saint John
from the forthcoming album "All That I Bleed"



(verse)
Letters arranged on the floor
Postmarked with shades of magenta.
Order by randomness,
I search for the words unhinged...

Obscured are "the atones"
Written beneath the white and the grey.
A character's character
Slanted by words left to say...

(chorus)
Where has the life of a hand become
Thin white lines in subterfuge
Some things not destined to know...
Ignorance be damned, for I want to grow!

(verse)
Paralyzed, I analyze
Each stroke with annoying pace.
Tear marks crooked with time,
For the fingerprint's guilt-driven shame!

Enveloped yet not developed,
At least to yet my reply.
Though hark! Silence is said
Feelings stamped to deny...

(chorus)

Haste is the waste of a day newborne
Yet this moment I still leave to be scorned!

Answer 1

Some really good lines here...I would have edited a little, though...for example:

I would have capitalized "the atones" if it is a reference to a title

"cause I want to grow" instead of "for I want..." the "for" sounds out of place here.

"Paralysis by Analysis"...I would definately have used this line instead of "paralyzed, I analyze"...it is a far more powerful phrase.

The next line, "each stroke with annoying pace"...I'm not sure about this one. Why not, "each stroke's annoying pace"?

"At least to yet my reply"...why not "At least yet to my reply"?

"hark!"? no way..."Listen!" or "Quiet!", yes, but "hark" sounds archaic.

"Silence is said"...weak...better to say "Silence is spoken"...it is a double syllable word, so it forms a better parallel with "silence" and it doesn't force an dead-end sound with the "d" (the "n" is softer and flows better).

All in all, very well done.

Meaning? Someone is looking over old letters and trying to pry meaning out of something irretreavably lost...lover, parent? Reader has some guilt associated with the situation but wishes the moment would end...yet feels it is something that must be done. Complex situation could apply to a number of contexts. Part of the power of this is that it "can" be applied to different circumstances, which leaves its almost obsure, ambiguous nature open to a larger audience who will fill in the blanks with their personal experience. Very effective.

Hope you sell a million copies :)

Answer 2

I can see that there is a lot of angst and thought and introspection in this expression. And even though I think I can usually drill down into another person's art, I admit, I am totally clueless. Therefore, I have nothing bad or good to say. Only, keep writing. Maybe I'll see something you've written on another day and we'll connect.

Answer 3

This poem is unknown to me. It feels as if the writer is searching to understand somebody in his past. He appears to grapple with a huge emotional attatchment to this person and he now has difficulty moving forward.