Reality. My Ella Willcox poem: An inspiration from Solitude

Reality

Talk about reality, and the world will listen,

Talk about fiction and you talk alone;

My sad old parents must borrow my experiences,

But have experience enough of their own.

Live in the real world and the people answer,

Live in your own, it is lost in the air;

The true facts bound from a truthful sound,

But shrink from little care.

Speak of your day, and men will gather,

Speak not, and they are gone;

They want full measure of your day’s pleasure,

But they do not need it long.

Join life and your friends are many,

Just read and you lose them all;

No one will delay to hear of your day,

But alone you may answer fiction’s call.

Speak truth, and your house is crowded,

Lie, and the world goes by.

Be true and give, and it helps you live,

But no topics can help you die;

For there are rooms in the halls of pleasure

For the truthful social train,

But on and on we will be gone

Aboard the life-long cars of pain.