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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