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When Writing Becomes too Difficult



When Writing Becomes Too Difficult
(after James Sacré)


One day writing
will become too difficult
and I will not be able
to think of the words,
just feel and see
the intricate grace
of what remains.

The adornment will go.
The precision too.
Only the consequence will stay.

Will only the mute
speak it—
only the deaf
hear it—
the blind
feel it?

Certainly,
only the gesture
will arrive:

a hand rinsing,
the white bowl left out,
my breath held
in the ruins.

Residue.
A taut line
against
forgetting.

It will sign—
We must live.

And we will,
even if
only
in
the
margins.

Comments

5 responses to “When Writing Becomes too Difficult”

  1. Ezekiel Fish Avatar

    Profoundly sad, heart-breaking.

  2. Aaron Guile Avatar

    I’ve been thinking about this, too. What will happen when I’m too old to write? I mentioned it to my son and he said dictation software is pretty good. And then he said it would kind of suck because it would just make my poetry sound angrier. Indeed, what will we do when we’re too old to write?

  3. JONATHAN MOYA Avatar

    Lovectge cimment. Appreciate it very much.

  4. syreal Avatar
    syreal

    I come away feeling excited at this prospect, because it seems to me that the speaker is writing themselves onto the margins of their own work. There is a bit of a time crunch, we can’t take forever to write what we need to now. “I will not be able / to think of the words, / just feel and see / the intricate grace / of what remains.” Maybe I’m over-interpreting, the later stanzas do come off more “dour”. The per-word line breaks in the last stanza make me feel like we’re sliding into the margins, that’s fun

  5. JONATHAN MOYA Avatar

    You got it about right. Great comment.

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