Some Sad Dark Secret

"Temper your enthusiasm,"

She said,

"The extremes of your reactions;

You should have

A more conventional frame

On which to hang

Your unconventionality."

"Don't push people,"

She said,

"You make yourself vulnerable."

She told me not to rhapsodise,

That it would be difficult,

Impossible, perhaps,

For me to harness my dynamism.

The tone of my work,

She said,

Is often a little dubious.

She said

She thought

That there was something wrong.

That I'm hiding

Some sad

Dark secret from the world.

"Temper your enthusiasm,"

She said,

"The extremes of your reactions;

You should have

A more conventional frame

On which to hang

Your unconventionality."