Proud Comments

Forborne with the time it took…withering… never catch your eye. Not receiving the knowing attention which should be present in a close relationship is hard. Appreciated the telling of complexity and pride and broken communion. I empathize.

PRIDE/PROUD in English is a vexed word because can be used positively or negatively. In the line at the end - I HEARD YOU CALLED ME PROUD - there is real hurt, you're being criticized as aloof, vain, unfeeling, any number of negative things. But that closing image in the last three lines is so powerful! It is an image of almost Promethean suffering, which is redemptive, I believe. If this man you (and by you I mean the speaker of your poem) you have faithfully followed knew the true dimensions of your existence he would be shamed.