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mokokoma · 9 months
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Poem: My Funeral Speech
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If someone were ignorant enough
Of the way that I think,
Or courageous enough,
To ask me to speak at a funeral,
I don’t think everyone would stay
Until the end
Of my speech.
Or that they would allow me to.
Because I
Would sigh,
Look everyone in the eye,
And then say…
What has happened
(“To” “the deceased”)
Is not a miracle,
And was inevitable:
To live
Is to owe life
To die—
To leave
Life.
It takes some people
A long time to pay.
And it takes some
A short time.
Some people are paying now,
As I speak.
And the rest of us will pay later.
Over a million of us,
(Thousands of whom are not
And will not be sick,
Hundreds of whom are strong),
Within a week.
Some people leave life after
They have lived for a hundred
Years.
And some leave life before
They have lived for a hundred
Seconds.
Or even four—
Or less.
What’s more,
Almost all of us
(All of whom
Did not choose
Whether to exist)
Do not choose
When to exit
Life—
Although we can,
If we choose
To exit now.
In other words,
And in closing,
The bigger the family,
The longer the list
Of corpses
It owes life.
* * *
(This poem is available as a print, sticker, on a canvas, tote bag, etc.)
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Some of my books: Why I Write, F for Philosopher, On Friendship.
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mokokoma · 9 months
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Bad Writers Make Readers Overuse the Dictionary
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Great writers use common words to create simple sentences.
There are good reasons they do that. For example, they put being clear over sounding clever. And they want the meaning of the sentence, not the meanings of the words, to take center stage.
What great writers remind readers who deserve their writings is that words are a means to an end.
Readers do not read to read.
They read to get something that happens to be delivered through the written word.
That means that the value of the writer is mainly determined by what they deliver through words. Not by the number of words they have introduced the reader to. You can, as a writer, change the reader’s worldview—and as a result the rest of their life—without changing the number of words they know. Once you realize that, you stop trying to take the reader’s breath away with your vocabulary’s breadth.
Don’t get me wrong!
I also enjoy being forced to use a dictionary every now and then. But only every now and then. And provided the uncommon word adds, to the sentence, something valuable that every common synonym of the uncommon word lacks.
* * *
Subscribe to get my unpublished aphorisms (“quotes”) via email.
Some of my books: Why I Write, F for Philosopher, On Friendship.
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mokokoma · 9 months
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APHORISM: Some animals are more humane than some humans.
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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DO YOU DISAGREE?👂🏾 REBLOG IF YOU AGREE 📢
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mokokoma · 1 year
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DO YOU DISAGREE?👂🏾 REBLOG IF YOU AGREE 📢
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mokokoma · 1 year
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DO YOU DISAGREE?👂🏾 REBLOG IF YOU AGREE 📢
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mokokoma · 1 year
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DO YOU DISAGREE?👂🏾 REBLOG IF YOU AGREE 📢
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mokokoma · 1 year
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DO YOU DISAGREE?👂🏾 REBLOG IF YOU AGREE 📢
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mokokoma · 1 year
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DO YOU DISAGREE?👂🏾 REBLOG IF YOU AGREE 📢
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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mokokoma · 1 year
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