Bono kept talking about that place where he can't live. Have you been there?

In his essay “Specialization of Poetry,” poet Wendell Berry wrote:
“there is, in reality, no such choice as “Yeats’s Perfection of the life, or of the work…” 
It is a necessary tension.

Hence this song, “With or Without You” by U2. It’s probably the most played single from the band that's been covered by so many artists.

 

In one interview in the late ‘80s, U2 lead vocalist Bono talked about what inspired the song. Bono wrote the lyrics while struggling to reconcile responsibilities, both as a married man and musician. He realized that neither facet of his life defined him, but rather the tension between the two.

 Now that’s a lived song.


 Unless you’d rather see this explained in diagram form.

Chair Variations

I surrendered my severed limbs
to the mercy of nails
to become whole again.

*

I have offered my flat surface
for comfort.

I serve many, indefinitely.
I never learned
to count the hours.

*

Sensing your restlessness,
my sturdy form keeps you still.

*

My back remains unmoved by your back.
I knew you'd lean, eventually.

*

I am behind and beneath you.

*

Despite the common intimacies,
Solitude is my loyal companion.

*

A touch is always foreign;
one person's grasp
is unlike another's.

*

One day you will not resist
the urge to carve words on my skin.

*

My skin is my memory:
I keep the marks you leave,
the deep and undecipherable
as well as the names
you carve yet forget.

*

Everyone is fleeting.

I remain unmoved
and never used to it.

*

I am grateful you keep me occupied
however momentary. I accept
this is my purpose.

*

I recognize the warmth
of your body at rest.

I keep this for as long as I can.