Honesty

I'm going to waste some of your time
With enough words
As from both faces of a hypocrite.

From painted mouth there flies forth painted word
Whose meaning flutters at the speaker's will;
For it is not the truth meant to be heard,
But skylark's saccharine song to scrutiny still.
Loquacious lips spill swill when spitting out
A draft they call fine wine whilst whining pour
Forth libel labeled truth, and loosely spout
Off hearsay heard about those they abhor.
From veneered sneer shoots rhetoric born of spite,
Unquivered from a loudly quivering tongue
That snaps off barbs to strung-up crowds incite,
Who, thus directed, will themselves be stung.
We silence fear, but truth has no such fright;
'Tis better not to speak than lie and blight.

Where “Yes” means not “Yes,”
Or, likewise, “No” means not “No,”
Language lies murdered.

Language is an ever growing tree--
Growing to feed mouths and fill books' leaves.
Branches hold us up as we find store
Of descriptions of all we explore.
Language has a growing canopy,
But, unseen, its roots must stronger be,
To uphold the weight of flow'ring words,
And invented passing language birds.
Where we sever branch from rooted trunk,
There we lose stability and plunk
Into treacherous shadowlands of sound,
Where confounding meaning may abound.
Here deception sounds the same as truth,
For there is no way by which to sleuth
And determine if both ears agree
What the word they hear purports to be.
Severed language leads to only loss
Of all truth and meaning, into gloss,
Which, though sounding wise, leads to chaos,
And results in only spectral dross.

When word play deceives
It is not the words that lie--
They mean what they say.

How to distort a text:

1. Create a pretext
2. Ignore the context
3. Insert a subtext
4. Keep clear meaning suppressed
5. Accept no protest
6. Ensure distortion stays impressed

I misspeak or err.
You gently correct or ask
Clarification.

The writer slips and paper cuts
To cause ill-chosen words to bleed.
The reader sees clear sign of stain,
That hint that there is more to read.
Instead of salving writer's wound
And seek to heal the pain-filled source,
They cause the writer mortal guilt,
And, frenzied, feed on the remorse.

Communication:
It requires practice and thought,
Often forgotten.

I speak to you a window to my mind,
But all you see is opaque glass
And, thus, no meaning find.
You ask for me to make the window clear.
I scrub the glass to clarity
That lets you message hear.

Listen patiently.
Speak plainly.
Tell the truth
Or be quiet.


[July 20, 2013]