Words are not deeds—
Just the gaps in people’s lacks.²
People often hold such great thoughts in their
Deepest Hearts, but only blunderingly express
Them—and faultily put them into practice—³
It’s all an Idea—talk—talk—talk—
Froth—high flown idiocy.⁴
In the multitude of words
There wanteth not Sin—but they
That Refraineth their lips are Wise.⁵
Our speech is tamed, and when we
Speak, it Communicates: we don’t waste
The gift of Speech expressing our neurosis.⁶
We never speak unless addressed—
And then, ‘tis brief & low:
We cannot bear to live—aloud—
The racket Shames us so—⁷
What is better than to tell the best?
It’s always to leave the Best Untold.⁸
What does Heaven ever say? Yet the
Four Seasons are put into motion by it, and
The myriad creatures receive their Life from it.⁹
The most important things are not openly said:
They’re understated and left
To Seep through to one …¹⁰
¹ Hermann Hesse tr. Joachim Neugroschel, Siddhartha
² William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
³ Langston Hughes, Freedom’s Plow
⁴ Agatha Christie, N or M?
⁵ Proverbs 10:19 (King James)
⁶ Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart
⁷ Emily Dickinson, I Was the Slightest
⁸ Walt Whitman, A Song of the Rolling Earth
⁹ Confucius tr. Edward Slingerland, Analects 17.19
¹⁰ Richard Wright, Black Boy