what just has to be said

the artist will out

what is worth writing?

what can slip past the defenses of lethargy and of avoidance?

past those sweetly sour voices that tell us to doubt ourselves,

that others are of worth

and that we just don’t really get it?

when the artist within my students 

wakes up and slips past their defenses,

what they notice, release, and build with their words

can shiver my spine and reawaken the artist within me

to find even more ways to express what just has to be said.

by Henry H. Walker

May 22, ’14