It isn’t the rhetoric

Or painfully constructed prose

Nor is it the lesson in discipline we learn

On our way through the catharsis

Of shedding yesterday’s chrysalis

No

That’s not what writing is about

Really

What writing is has nothing to do with words either

They are but inadequate afterthoughts

Lingering like earthquake tremors

On the typography of man’s paper chase

Writing is a fluid

Pumping through the marrow

A living/breathing power

Controlled

But not contained

By those who think a thought worth saving

Or witness an event worthy of prolonged attention

Writing is the perfect timing of ideas

Impacting ravenous curiosities

In the midst of experiencing the sublime privilege

Of putting two and two together

In as many ways God will permit

Never underestimate the power of accumulation

For once a thought is scribed

It lives only to give birth to another

Until

At last

We come to know

Why it is we need to write

John Christopher

1988