This year, I have decided to try and stretch my brain, and develop some new synapses in the old grey matter, by teaching myself to write songs. I'm already adept at poetry, particularly free verse, but writing an arangement of words that fit a pattern of liguistic logic and musical logic is a special skill. Back in Januaury, I started a thread here basically asking for any advice that came off the top of Catters' heads.

I'm starting a new thread now, rather than refreshing that one, because a particular piece of Fortunato's advice in that thread has got me thinking in a new direction.

For those who don't like to hop back and forth between links, the gist of his advice was: "Pick one metaphor and stick with it."

So my question is:

What about complex metaphors? To use a mathematical model:

X=Z, Y=Z, so X=Y

Is that one metaphor, or 2 (Z=X, Z=Y)? Are there some big ideas that you simply cannot express through song?

Hoping this leads to an interesting discussion....