Friday, March 14, 2008

Talking

Some of you talk to convince me of something

Some of you talk to convince yourself of something

Some of you talk to control conversation
Some of you talk to keep me distracted
Some of you talk because you don’t know how to live with the silence


Some of you talk in order to get attention
Some of you talk in order to deflect attention

Some of you talk so that I wont

Some of you talk to defend yourself
Some of you talk to advance your agenda

Some of you talk because it’s easier than listening


I hear all of you

I’m not as think as you dumb I am

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is an interesting poem on listening, by Ray Houghton

please, just listen
when i ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice.

you have not done what i asked.
when i ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why i shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings

when i ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem,
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
listen! all i asked was that you listen,
not talk, or do... just hear.

advice is cheap: fifty cents will get you both
dear abby and billy graham in the same newspaper.
and i can do that myself. i'm not helpless.
maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.
when you do something for me that i can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.

but when you accept, as a simple fact, that i do feel
no matter how irrational, then i can quit trying to
convince you and get about the business of
understanding what's behind this irrational feeling.
and, when that's clear, the answers are obvious and i don't need advice. irrational feelings make sense when we understand what's behind them.

please listen and just hear me, and if you want to talk wait a minute for your turn, and i'll listen to you

Jonathan Foster said...

that reminds me of a question i always had... why is it when you get someone's opinion you say, "a penny for your thoughts?" but when you want to give your own opinion you say, "here's my two cents worth." why is mine worth twice as much?