Someone said journaling
is just another kind of navel-gazing,
attaching guilt to this activity.
Then I see
I’m more Peaceful Person than Steam-rolling Babbler
when I put half my words on paper
and not in people’s ears or bottling them up where
they bulge out my eyes and wrestle for air
then punch me in the throat.
In TV’s Parks & Rec, I’m the Leslie Knope:
mission-minded leader yet
steam-rolling pusher to get
what she wants, not listening when she’s upset,
but not intentionally mean. She’s just passionate.
That’s it, passionate.
My passion is like an eager waiter rushing to serve you
a mug of hot coffee filled to the brim,
meant to be
invigorating, pleasant, filling,
but when hustled to you, it sloshes and spills-
sloppy, painful, unwanted,
a mess in your lap
instead of a warmth in your belly
so that I wish I’d never brought it to you
at all.
That’s why I journal,
so my passion doesn’t burn you and all
I touch but keeps doing good
while staying where it should.
Some people run to live, some ride to live-
well I, I write to live
at peace in my own mind and body,
passionate yet wise in community.
-Ellen H.
