Tuesday, 8/10/10 - Writing Is

Writing is the inexact precision
of recounting events as they are created
and the take-you-by-the-hand escorting
of insightful blind-led-blindness
stepping carefully through overgrown underbrush
on ancient pathways newly trodden
that lead back to a remembered time
not yet arrived.

Writing is the secreting of words in people's mouths
and remarking with awed surprise
at the wit and candor of those same words
when coaxed out at a later time
in spur-of-the-moment conversations
scripted in advance.

Writing is the building of impossible ships
from spit and clay and seeds imagined
then captaining those ships
on crackling electronic rivers
beyond familiar horizons
to wait with composed impatience
for blight or bloom
contradiction or confirmation.