Thursday 17 April 2014

#17 Chat Room

Someone on the internet was wrong...

***

She say: "what good can talking do?"
I blink at this,
Think twice, or three times,
Can't envisage free speech
Equalling powerlessness.

"How will words change a jot?"
How can they not
As - drop by drop -
We erode old notions,
Make a stepping stone
For thought
Alchemising into action.

Even chatter with our
Mirror selves holds weight,
A way to confirm ourselves
In echo.

And for some of us
It's celebration
We remember the mire of silence
Its toxic tyranny
The way secrets
Breed shame
How naming ourselves
Brought us, shivering
Into our own power.

In our nattering meandering
We reshape matter,
Examine it from all sides
Find ways to decide,
Safe in dangerous play,
Changing our own,
And others' minds:
The first and hardest step
Towards a new reality.

Whatever didn't talking change?

***

"Secrets breed shame" is not an original line - I owe it to my virtual big brother Scott Shanks, a very talented writer and excellent giver-of-advice

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