Invisible Strings - 13. "In Wonderland, We're Surprised/Not Surprised to Learn the Chamomile Tea Tastes Bitter" by Kelli Russell Agodon

"In Wonderland, We're Surprised/Not Surprised to Learn the Chamomile Tea Tastes Bitter" by Kelli Russell Agodon

I don't know if any of these poets are familiar with Taylor Swift's lyrics/catalog/lore, but I've been surprised to see a few nods to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland already, but none of them have matched up with what I'd consider the Alice songs. And I think the same can be said for this one.

The first, loosest, connection I found was the the line in the poem, "On a balcony, she reads / instructions on new ways / to jump." It automatically made me think of the line in "Is It Over Now?" - "Oh, Lord, I think about / Jumping off of very tall somethings." But the poem focuses more on the narrator's internal struggles with herself, while the song focuses on the narrator's struggles with a partner.

The last line of the poem, "A shattered disco ball still reflects / a fractured image," sounds an awful lot like a reference to "mirrorball." But if we're looking for something deeper, I also think it's a situation similar to "Is It Over Now?" In "mirrorball," the narrator is focused on how they appear to the outside world; they don't seem to be as focused on their internal struggles.

So, I think "Anti-Hero" is my best guess here. The first line of the poem, "Alice is playing cards with herself and losing," seems to line up nicely with, "I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser." The line in the song, "Midnights become my afternoons" matches with the poem's line, "The drawbacks of insomniacs / are the hours available to analyze / a conflict - a convincing script / a role-play of possible opinions. / In the problem of moonlight, she / listens to jokes from demons." And of course, the most memorable line from the song, "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me," parallels with the poem's final lines, "A shattered disco ball still reflects / a fractured image - her own villians / in the looking glass looking back."

I realize that my skills in poetry analysis are pretty rudimentary, so this is in no way a comment on the quality of poetry in the book, but this has been my favorite pairing so far. I really think the poet created something that works as a unique, stand-alone work, but it also fits so well alongside the song.

Invisible Strings - 12. "alice, tumbling." by amanda lovelace

"alice, tumbling." by amanda lovelace

The mention of "alice" in the title definitely had me thinking of the 1989 bonus track "Wonderland." But it doesn't seem to be a match with poem. The song discusses a relationship, while the poem talks about family history, the past, and the narrator's connection to it.

The first stanza of the poem, "one may morning / when i wasn't looking / a portal opened from / new york to dublin." So, I began trying to think of any songs that discuss portals, time travel, or any other method of getting from Point A to Point B. That's when "I Hate It Here" came to mind. In comparison to the stanza above, the line in the song, "I hate it here so I will go to / Secret gardens in my mind / People need a key to get to / The only one is mine." I always assumed this song was about the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, so I didn't make the connection to "alice" (I'm assuming Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, here) right away, but if the poem is in response, it's possible that the poet chose Alice instead of The Secret Garden.

There are a few lines that echo - in the poem, the first line of the second stanza, "in my mind," and the line in the song mentioned above, "...I will go to / Secret gardens in my mind / People need a key to get to." In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, where she eventually finds a key sitting on top of a table, and they key opens a door into...a secret garden!

The other line that stood out in the poem, "something i get to call mine," also seems to parallel, "People need a key to get to / The only one is mine," in the song.

After struggling with the last few, it was really fun to feel like I had some success with this one. I find it so interesting the route the poet decided to take in responding to the song, and I just love it!

Invisible Strings - 10. "Dreaming the Lowdown" by Yusef Komunyakaa*

"Dreaming the Lowdown" by Yusef Komunyakaa

I've had a most difficult time trying to make inroads on this one. I have searched high and low for similar imagery, themes, characters...anything...and I am coming up empty-handed. So, I took to Google to see if I could learn anything about the poet that might help. His bio on Google:

Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

And with that, I feel VERY out of my league. I thought about admitting defeat on this one, but I don't have a lot of quit in me. So, I will try to do what I can with it and hope that maybe insight or inspiration will strike later on down the road.

The first line, "Now, around here they call me / St. Peter" had me thinking of the song "Peter." The narrator in the poem says, "I know you wish to know exactly where I've been," and the narrator in the song, "You said you were gonna grow up / Then you were gonna come find me," so there's an element of someone being gone and returning in both the poem and the song. But I feel that the time period of the poem plays an important role, so I have to rule out "Peter."

The poem mentions "my baby-blue Studebaker" and the poem "The Emperor of Ice Cream." A cursory internet search tells me that Studebakers were produced from 1902 to 1966, and "The Emperor of Ice Cream" was copyrighted in 1954. So, I'm thinking the poem is set in the 1950's - 60's. The only song that comes to mind from that time period is "Timeless." It's the strongest connection I can make, so I'm choosing it for now.

There are so many things in the poem that I can't connect - Redding (California? Connecticut?), Philly, the el, prayer rugs, the reference to the twelve apostles ("then twelve little circles within flesh and stone"), and "the hairshirt stashed beneath a breezy rosebush." I know enough to know that I don't know much, so I hope to return to this one again.

*This may not be my final answer, so I'm noting the title with an asterisk so I remember to return to it.

Invisible Strings - 7. "Raroa Road" by Nina Mingya Powles

"Raroa Road" by Nina Mingya Powles

Full disclosure: I've taken to Google to search for the appearance of certain words in Taylor's songs. I like to think that I know her lyrics like the back of my hand (Better Man reference, anyone?), but sometimes it's hard to sort them all out or pull up the right one in the ol' brain rolodex. So, I have a Tumblr page that I stumbled upon to thank for this one.

The poem is set up in two parts - "flashback" and "echo." I was so thrown by the unique structure that I didn't catch the "Red" reference until scouring the web, "Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echos." 😮 Once that connection was made, it all seemed to fall into place. The poem mentions autumn, always associated with the Red album, and also describes the city as "moss green" and "tidal blue," which I believe also calls back to the colors mentioned in the song, "Losing him was blue like I've never known / Missing him was dark gray all alone."

I also searched to see if Raroa Road is an actual street, and it is a real street in New Zealand. I did another quick search to find that that poet is from New Zealand, so that was interesting! And just out of pure curiosity, I clicked through a street view of Raroa Road, and it's a lush green, winding road. I wondered if it was a "dead end street" as mentioned in the song, but it appears to continue in both directions with different names. However, it does look like a very enjoyable, drivable road, so maybe the poet thought of it with the first line of the song, "Loving him was like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street."

A random footnote: I also searched for "kaka and tui bells" as mentioned in the poem, but sadly, I was unable to figure out what they are. No traces of them on the internet! I'm assuming they might be specific to New Zealand? So, if anyone knows what they are and would like to share, I'm very interested!

Invisible Strings - 5. "A Shared Nocturne" by Tyler Knott Gregson

 "A Shared Nocturne" by Tyler Knott Gregson

I didn't have any connections jumping out at me until the last line of the poem - "Stay." And then it all clicked. "All You Had to Do Was Stay" seemed to be an immediate fit. The repetition of "stay" throughout the song, and then the appearance of "stay" at the end of the poem.

After seeing the last line, the poem's first line, "Send them backwards" seemed to click into place with the song. In the song, the narrator is looking back on a relationship and telling their partner that they should have known what they had when they had it. In the poem (perhaps narrated by the partner of the narrator in the song), the narrator wants to take everything back and have their partner "whisper / Stay."

I also thought that "If This Was a Movie" could be a possibility because of the "Come back, come back, come back to me" lines, and I think that does work, in a way, because in the poem the narrator is looking backward, rewinding in a way. But in the song, the role is flipped, and the narrator is the one that wanted the partner to stay.

So, I'm going to stick with my original gut feeling on this one because I think it's truly the poem's narrator responding to the narrator in the song.

Invisible Strings - 4. "Love's Cure" by Bianca Stone

 "Love's Cure" by Bianca Stone

I realize that it's still early days of this project, but so far, there's been no process that's revealed itself. With the first poem, I immediately linked the poem with an album. In the second and third, it was more scattered. With this, the fourth, it's back to album recognition for me, and this one seems like a Lover poem.

I worked my way through several songs on the album and a few stood out. "Daylight" came to mind because of the sun and rays imagery in the poem. The narrator in the poem says that love "fills my head like a weird gold crayon," and in the song, "I once believed love would burning red / but it's golden." I honestly think that this could be the match, but there's just a gut feeling that another option is better.

Along the lines of the sun/light imagery, I gave "Afterglow" a listen. The narrator in the song is taking blame, "Hey, it's all me / just don't go," and it feels like they are working on a convincing apology. The poem seems more like an observation than an apology or conversation with someone.

I settled on "Lover" as the match. Perhaps I'm being too literal, but I'm searching for any parallels using any small crumbs that might lead the way. A line late in the poem, "Strung lights up, far into the new year," is reminiscent of the first line of the song, "We can leave the Christmas lights up til January." In both the song and the poem, the word "lover" is used. 

Admittedly, I know little of Greek and Roman poets and philosophers, so the portion of the poem on Lucretius is sailing over my head. I did some very brief research and found that in his poem, the universe is guided by chance and not divine intervention. This seems like it could be a large clue, but I have yet to link it up with any of Ms. Swift's lyrics. Further, it appears the poem opens with an address to Venus urging her to pacify her lover to spare Rome from strife. Well, there's an appearance of "lover" again, anyway. I've mulled over the following line in the poem: "Of the erotic, forget what you know. For love leaps along it, the unremembered part of the dream." I think it may be in answer to the song being titled "Lover," but nothing (other than a line about "dirty jokes") in the song actually refers to any sort of physical encounters or eroticism. 

This poem was a challenge for me when I read it through the first time before deciding I was going to do this project. I'm really glad that I've spent more time with it, because I really like it. I normally find myself drawn to works that illicit an instantaneous emotional response, and this one didn't. But the more I read, each line seems to have a solidity to it that I can really appreciate. It's more of an observation than an instant, emotional response, and maybe it's just that I'm getting older, but I think that's really beautiful, too.

Invisible Strings - 2. "How can I tell you what dark wing" by Robin Behn

 "How can I tell you what dark wing" by Robin Behn

The first reading of this poem had me thinking "Blank Space" immediately. It reads like a list, and the repetition of "and that one's" and "his" seems to refer to a number of different men. The end of the poem, "tell me it's not too late. /Come lay your hand upon my troubled face." also seems to parallel with the end of "Blank Space" - "I've got a blank space, baby / and I'll write your name." In both the poem and the song, there are suggestions of a number of relationships, but at the end of each, the narrator hasn't given up hope. They are still open to another chance, despite the previous relationships not working out.

If the poet is familiar with Taylor lore, the poem can read as a Harry or Matty song - the broken bones in the poem reminiscent of Harry's snowmobile crash that's referenced in "Out of the Woods" - "Remember when you hit the brakes too soon / twenty stitches in the hospital room," or Matty's car crash in "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" - "You crashed my party and your rental car" aligning with "mail-order pills and convertible wrapped around a tree" in the poem. I think I have to rule out "Smallest Man" though, because the poem ends with the narrator open to another relationship, but in the song, the narrator is clearly finished with the relationship and not hinting at being ready for another.

Another 1989 song, "Style" popped in my head as a possibility. The song is upbeat but the poem is somber. The main connection coming to mind is in the song, "I heard/that you've been out and about with some other girl/He said, 'What you heard is true/but I can't stop thinkin bout you.' I said, 'I've been there, too, a few times,'" and the poem mentions "Old Nights. Others." but it could read that the narrator is speaking to one person and explaining what happened during their time apart. The song says, "Could end in burning flames," and in the poem, "the distant river on fire." I think this one is a decent possibility because it does seem that the narrator in both the song and the poem want to return to the same person at the end.

"Guilty as Sin" has some similar imagery, but on the whole, I don't think it's a match. I also listened to "My Tears Ricochet," but that didn't seem to be it, either. "Ivy" (an all-time favorite of mine) has similar themes - infidelity in the song and "Others" and "Silences. Disgrace." in the poem. The narrator in the poem is "here in this quiet bower." The narrator in the song "just [sits] here in wait/grieving for the living." Both make mention of fire, rock/stone, and wine. But my gut is telling me this one isn't it.

I think I'm settling on "Blank Space".

Invisible Strings by Kristie Frederick Daugherty - 1. "Pull" by Maggie Smith

Flashes of brilliance rarely strike, and I've been waiting (checks calendar) eight years for a worthy idea to reanimate the blog. Today, it finally happened 💖

I work for a law firm as a librarian, and in the most heartwarmingly adorable librarian-themed thing to do, we have a book exchange with our department that works like a white elephant gift exchange. Before the gathering, we all send one book title to our boss, who puts together a list based on all of our choices, and there are no repeats. The first person can pick any number, and the book behind that number (on a PowerPoint, since we're working remotely) will be revealed. The next person can choose to steal that book or pick a number to choose a different, unrevealed book. I was number 19 this year, so a fair number of books were revealed, and there were a few I was contemplating stealing. But something in my gut told me to choose an unrevealed book. So, I had to decide which number. I considered a few, but none felt quite right. Then, when it was my turn, I chose book 22 and told everyone I was choosing it because of my birthdate (August 22). My boss, who was leading the book exchange said, "Well, that number sounds a lot like Taylor Swift!" And the book that was revealed was Invisible Strings edited by Kristie Frederick Daughterty. This was the day after The Eras Tour concluded, and I was tired and in a state of mild mourning - no more surprise songs to tune into, no more new outfit reveals. When I saw that this was the book I chose, not because of Taylor Swift, but because of my birthdate, there were tears in my eyes. I honestly can't think of a more Invisible String than that. You can call it Tayvoodoo, coincidence, or yes, an invisible string, but no matter its name, it was magical. It turns out, one of my teammates had chosen the book especially for me. If I were to have been the first person to choose a book, the odds were 1 in 29, but I have a feeling those odds grew exponentially since I was the nineteenth person to choose a book, and no one had chosen book 22 yet. It was the most beautiful post-Eras gift I could have imagined 🌟

Fast-forward a few days, and I received the book in the mail. I wanted to start it immediately, but I also wanted to save it to be the first book I finished in 2025 as a nod to the wonderful past two years of my life that have been pretty Taylor-centric, if we're being honest. I read the first (I SWEAR TO GOD THIS WAS NOT PLANNED) 13 poems on December 18, then set the book aside since I traveled home to visit family for the holidays. I was a little disappointed that there's no "key" in the book that reveals which song was the inspiration for each of the 113 poems in the book. After reading the first 13 (still can't believe it, TBH. The poems themselves aren't numbered. They're only numbered in the Contents.), I thought, "There is no way I'm going to be able to figure out which song is linked with which poem, and even if I tried, that would be a LOT of work." I'm not sure when the idea revealed itself, but it might have been when I was doing laundry. THIS is the way back to the blog! This is writing about writing, which I love, and I would be writing about writing about writing which is some kind of wild inception that I am definitely here for. Am I qualified? Probably not. I dropped out of AP English my junior year because I couldn't handle the workload, but I did complete AP English my senior year and received an "A" in the course. I have a degree in journalism, though that didn't include studying much (read: any) poetry. I also have a degree in Spanish Language and Literature, and there were at least a couple classes that focused on Spanish poetry, so I guess I've got that in my back pocket. But I dearly love Taylor Swift, songs, songwriting, cultural references, pop culture, and basically everything this project will entail. I have my spreadsheet of songs at the ready and will be digging deep back into my brain circa 2007-2008 to access some of those lessons on poetry from AP English. I hope you'll join me, and please feel free to chime in. I would love to have discussions based around the songs and the poetry. I think it's going to be a marvelous time 😇

I won't reproduce the poem here since I'm not well-versed in copyright law and am unsure if I can do so, but I will reference certain lines and how I interpret them to connect to Taylor's songs. I'm also going to assume that the book includes poems in response to songs from The Tortured Poets Department, but I am not sure on that. I'll put a question to the editor of this work in Goodreads and see if she responds!

"Pull" by Maggie Smith

When I read this first poem in the context of trying to determine which song it was in response to, my immediate thought was, "Oh no." I've since read it many times, and I'm still seeing a variety of avenues this one could take. My response will be a sort of stream-of-consciousness, and we'll see if I reach a conclusion by the end.

The third line where she references "woods & rain" makes me think folklore or evermore, "trees smelling of wet leather." The appearance of the word "pretty" certainly evokes "invisible string," but the subject of the poem doesn't line up with "invisible string," so that's out.

The mention of "dark windows" and "seeing only myself reflected but staring & staring" turns to TTPD: The Anthology for me with "I Look in People's Windows." A possibility.

As I reread the poem while listening to the song, another scenario appears in the poem: the narrator IS inside, looking outside, "knowing too well the other side." Hmm. I may be getting stuck on the window as a literal connection to "I Look in People's Windows," but it's hard to let go. There is also a line in "Windows" that says, "a feather taken by the wind blowing," which links to the narrator in the poem being outside.

I'm looking at her discography and about to listen to "The Outside." - a debut song, and definitely in line with the outdoor elements, at least literally. It could be a fit, but there's no nature imagery, and there's no window imagery. I'm getting stuck in the poem on the narrator actually getting inside but being fixated on the outside.

"Anti-Hero" is a possibility with the theme of the poem, but in the song, she can "stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror," so it doesn't seem to be the same narrator who is "seeing myself reflected but staring & staring." I think it could still work, but there aren't any nature themes in the song, and the nature seems to have a significant role in the poem.

If the imagery isn't a match and it's based on content alone, I think "Guilty as Sin?" could have potential. The narrator at the end of them poem inside trying to look out, and the narrator in the song says, "This cage was once just fine." In both the song and the poem, the narrator ends up wanting out, in a way.

So, I think my final answer (for now) is either "I Look in People's Windows" or "Guilty as Sin?"