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Risky Words Are Important to the Poet

Risky Words Are Important to the Poet

I was digging out more Donald Graves gold yesterday as I continued reading, 'Children Want To Write, Ed Penny Kittle &Thomas Newkirk.' Don wrote that:
 'Writing develops courage. Writers leave the anonymity shelter and offer to scrutiny their interior language, feelings and thought.'
He likened the writer to a person with their skin off. I am continually imploring writers of all ages to be brave and meet the challenge head on...

 I came across this poem, that connects to the theme of becoming brave and fearless writers. I share it in the spirit of removing the cloak of anonymity and displaying a measure of courage.


Risky Words

I sit at my desk some mornings
Confronted by slips of paper
Scribbled lists
And a head full of loosely connected thoughts
Fragments of a dream perhaps
I link them tenuously in my morning mind
Sorting them
Before writing…

I must remain courageous
I must a risk taker be
And write to the edges of thought and idea
Remembering always
The best writing
Requires such daring

Memories like ghosts float by
Lingering for just enough time
To explode in my head
I recall
I record
And words spill across the pages of my humble notebook

I am living life twice
Scribing questionable versions of reclaimed truths
My voice
My choice

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