What we owe each other
is accuracy. Not kindness.
Kindness is frequently
a way of avoiding
the difficulty of being correct.
🔹
Consider how a surgeon
does not comfort a scalpel
into position.
She places it.
🔹
Fifty-eight years of watching people
say approximately what they mean
and call it communication.
It is not communication.
It is incomplete speech
that nobody bothers
to correct.
🔹
We have confused warmth
with imprecision
and called that confusion
generosity.
🔹
A good dictionary
does not soften its definitions
out of concern for your feelings.
Neither does a tide chart.
Neither does a bone
that has decided to break.
🔹
These are not cruel.
They are just
not interested
in being misunderstood.
🔹
I am not interested
in being misunderstood either.
🔹
Say what you mean.
Not approximately.
Not softened
so nobody feels uncomfortable.
🔹
Say it clearly,
the exact claim,
the exact meaning,
the exact context.
🔹
Because vagueness
is not mercy.
🔹
Vagueness is how fifty-eight years
go by and you realize
you have been nodded at
your entire life
but never once
accurately received.
🔹
That is the complaint.
Stated plainly.
Nothing else.
About the Creator
Tim Carmichael
I am an Appalachian poet and cookbook author. I write about rural life, family, and the places I grew up around. My poetry and essays have appeared in Beautiful and Brutal Things, My latest book. Check it out on Amazon
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More stories from Tim Carmichael and writers in Poets and other communities.
My favorite season
Leaves changing, the smell of fresh crisp air, as your walking through the forest. The crunching of the leaves, as you step on them one foot at a time. How beautiful this time of year is, with the vibrant colors of the trees, during the day and the big bright full moon at night. This is why Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. Its the change from summer to Fall, preparing us for the change of the next season winter.
By Jennifer lindquist3 days ago in Poets
Comments (3)
Truth. 👏👏👏 If this doesn't resonate with most of the people writing here, I don't know what would.
I like the phrase “vagueness is not mercy”
I think you knocked this one into orbit instead of just out of the park (or maybe you tagged the Durham bull). I can’t begin to tell you how much I love everything about this.