For my first post of the year in the Blogging A to Z Challenge, I have decided to write about a song I love (in fact, many of my posts for this year will be about songs). The song for this post is “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift. I’m not necessarily a Swiftie (her voice leaves a lot to be desired, but I will concede that she has improved as time has gone on), but where my fandom with her lies is in her song lyrics. And “All Too well” has some of the most emotionally powerful lyrics I’ve heard.

I appreciate the imagery she creates in phrases like, “The autumn leaves falling like pieces into place” and “We dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light”. I admire the structure in the line, “You tell me about your past thinking your future was me.” And perhaps the line I love the most is what I see as a microcosm of the way we treat each other in society nowadays, “So casually cruel in the name of being honest.” I mean, seriously, why do we think honesty is always the best policy? Sometimes we need to be tactful and keep our mouths shut. I have really come to resent the phrase, “Hey, I’m just being honest. Keeping it real.” It’s casual cruelty n the name of being honest.

Finally, I appreciate the entire story arc Swift tells in the lyrics. I’m a sucker for tortured, impossible love stories, and the one in this song seems to fir the bill. This was a good relationship with potential and it didn’t work out and the pain the narrator feels is obvious and deep. It’s sad from beginning to end. Even the happy moments are retold with a tinge of sadness, and it’s that sadness I respond to. My husband always told me that the best poetry I ever wrote was when I wrote out of pain, so maybe that’s why I love the pain in this song.