worth saying
I read the screen or the page
I listen to the other ones talking
as though everyone is waiting
for what I will have to say
as if what matters is how I respond
why would that be true?
social media creates the illusion
that life is a series of little soap boxes
waiting for me to stand and speak
or did I create that illusion
to more easily accept their invitations?
I love putting words to page
or screen or setting them free
into the air to find their way
I love a well-crafted sentence
an incisive thought well-timed
I dream of saying the thing
that gets quoted again and again
but that dream comes up empty
what is worth saying?
not the thing that inserts me
in the conversation like the singer
who doesn’t know how to blend
in with the rest of the choir
not the thing that will make me
feel better or righteous or right
not the thing that allows me
to think I have done my part
the pundits and public theologians
will always beat me to the punch
but is punching the point?
perhaps what is worth saying is
not mine to say but to hear and then
after a long pause
to respond with well-worn words
inhabited by presence more than eloquence
words that bear repeating
I love you
I’m listening
I’m with you
this is not the end
I love you
I love you
Peace,
Milton
