Break or Bend

Am I my own best, most attentive reader, or am I like so many others who write, and who somehow remain strangers to their own words, as if they are embarrassing and awkward to be around? Haste is the great enemy. If, while reading, I do not engage all of my senses and weigh each line on a scale of personal and universal truth, while being sure that, as it is spoken, it flows smoothly from the tongue, then I am not really reading at all; I am, rather, only taking satisfaction in having written; which means, I think more highly of myself than I do those with whom I am hoping to communicate. Thus I will have missed what is possibly the last opportunity to build a bridge between us, not knowing if, tomorrow, I will break, or bend.

[ 1972 ]