I want to write with quiet hands.

[musesfool]

I keep thinking I am going to make a post about the whole responsible writing thing, and each time I do, it devolves into a vitriolic rant, so, yeah, not so much with that. My responsibilities as a writer are to my stories. People are free to read or not read my stories as they see fit. I like people to read them, and like them, and be moved by them, but I accept that not every story is for every reader, nor should it be.

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Have a poem.

Everything

I want to make poems that say right out, plainly,
what I mean, that don't go looking for the
laces of elaboration, puffed sleeves. I want to
keep close and use often words like
heavy, heart, joy, soon, and to cherish
the question mark and her bold sister

the dash. I want to write with quiet hands. I
want to write while crossing the fields that are
fresh with daises and everlasting and the
ordinary grass. I want to make poems while thinking of
the bread of heaven and the
cup of astonishment; let them be

songs in which nothing is neglected,
not a hope, not a promise. I want to make poems
that look into the earth and the heavens
and see the unseeable. I want them to honor
both the heart of faith, and the light of the world;
the gladness that says, without any words, everything.

--Mary Oliver

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