The Writer’s Choice

The Writer’s Choice
© February 22, 2008
Richard O. Harris

It seems simple it is the writer’s choice
Which words will best serve as a voice
To help readers the world all around
Relate most readily to those sounds.

For then each writer must assume
The reader’s able to hear the tune
Or, at least, have some empathy
For one the writer may never see.

The reader, of course, may be far or near
The writer too, if it’s that we want to hear.
Speaking will often lead to misunderstanding
So written choices are much more demanding.

While writers struggle to enter a mind
The reader may often feel left behind.
Forgetting words have several meanings
Can lead to choices full of gleanings.

The words the writer uses may be good
Yet can, by readers, be misunderstood.
A good example, is if the words say,
“I rode my bike to work today.”

One reader may think this means I rode a Schwinn
While, yet another, is thinking Harley Davidson.
Such a simple word to mean two different things
But such choices I call “Tower of Babel” labeling.

As they are read words can only be given meaning
Based on the readers choice of such determining.
For no matter what words chosen from the “Tower”,
It is the reader who must give them power.