You may have heard that Taylor Swift no longer gives interviews. You may have also heard Taylor Swift is the second cover star of British Vogue under its new editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful. But you may remember when I said, just now, Taylor Swift no longer gives interviews. She’s ~transcended~ interviews, and now handwrites melancholy poetry in lieu of the ole verbal Q and A.
Here is Taylor Swift’s poem (definitely not a song) in full:
“The Trick to Holding On” by Taylor Swift
Let go of the ones who hurt you
Let go of the ones you outgrow
Let go of the words they hurl your way
as you’re walking out the door
The only thing cut and dry
In this hedge-maze life
Is the fact that their words will cut
but your tears will dry
They don’t tell you this when you are young
You can’t hold on to everything
Can’t show up for everyone
You pick your poison
Or your cure
Phone numbers you know by heart
And the ones you don’t answer any more
Hold on to the faint recognition in
the eye of a stranger
As it catches you in its lustrous net
How quickly we become intertwined
How wonderful it is to forget
All the times your intuition failed you
But it hasn’t killed you yet
Hold on to childlike whims and moonlight swims and your blazing self-respect
And if you drive the roads of this town
Ones you’ve gone down so many times before
Flashback to all the times
Life nearly ran you off the road
But tonight your hand is steady
Suddenly you’ll know
The trick to holding on
Was all that letting go
Let’s break this poem down. Why not?
Let go of the ones who hurt you
Let go of the ones you outgrow
Let go of the words they hurl your way
Listen. The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, because the new Taylor is settling scores left and right. The new-new Taylor is ~zen~ and promotes just letting go of those that hurt you— letting go is the trick to holding on! It’s called poetry sweaty, look it up.
as you’re walking out the door
The only thing cut and dry
In this hedge-maze life
Is the fact that their words will cut
but your tears will dry
So here Taylor is saying life is not black and white, it’s RED like the color of blood and revenge and Reputation. No, wait. She’s saying people will hurt you but you’ll get over it, and that’s the only certainty there is in this “hedge-maze” life, wherein hedge-maze is a metaphor. For life. Which is not black and white.
They don’t tell you this when you are young
You can’t hold on to everything
Can’t show up for everyone
Taylor demonstrates her enormous capacity and desire to love and support everyone.
You pick your poison
Or your cure
Reminiscent of the lyrics in “Don’t Blame Me” where Taylor sings “I was once poison ivy/but now I’m your daisy.”
Phone numbers you know by heart
And the ones you don’t answer any more
Ok…are these one and the same, or?
Hold on to the faint recognition in
the eye of a stranger
As it catches you in its lustrous net
How quickly we become intertwined
How wonderful it is to forget
All the times your intuition failed you
But it hasn’t killed you yet
Hold on to childlike whims and moonlight swims and your blazing self-respect
It seems as though there’s a lot to unpack here, but really just an exposition on the classic Swiftesque thematic arc consisting of: strangers, catching feelings quickly, forgetting past pain, failed intuition, then coming out only a little worse for wear at the end due to blazing self-respect. This narrative is punctuated by lyrical Taylor imagery: getting caught in a “lustrous net” and “childlike whims” and “moonlight swims.”
And if you drive the roads of this town
Ones you’ve gone down so many times before
Flashback to all the times
Life nearly ran you off the road
But tonight your hand is steady
Suddenly you’ll know
The trick to holding on
Was all that letting go
It’s hard not to appreciate the bookend here “Let go” vs. “The trick to holding on/was letting go,” and harder still not to see this as song lyrics rather than a poem, but semantics, I guess. Again, Taylor imagery: driving on familiar roads of ye olde hometown. Basically Taylor is using a car as a metaphor for Life. Follow the identical story arc of the previous stanza here: The familiar is the strange and vice versa, remembering past pain, coming out stronger than ever because ~zen.
Is this just a track that never made it onto Reputation because Reputation was all about Taylor’s unwillingness to let bygones be bygones? Is it ironic to be reading a poem about “letting go” from a human being who literally cannot let anything go? Who knows? NOT US because Taylor doesn’t give interviews anymore.