"I know that you have devoted your life to language, but do you truly feel words? Do you catch your breath on stanzas, or choke on alliteration? Have you ever swallowed books whole, consumed their every syllable in one bite? Have words ever filled you with an immense, shaking brave? Have they ever caused you lovesickness, or the feeling that everything is crashing down? Have you ever written anyone a love poem? If so, did you compare them to a quiet bubbling brook, or an undiscovered nebula, dark and far away and dangerous? Do you know what the word Quiescent means? It is a quiet, soft-spoken soul. Does this remind you of yourself, or would you use your words to shout out against indecency and unfairness? Do you know how to pronounce each of the 50 Egyptian words for sand, or do they all come out sounding something like love? Can you see the transcripts written in-between your freckles? Do you understand why a group of ravens are called an unkindness, and why people are compared to oceans and homes? Have you ever felt the same sadness as Plath? Have you felt the strength of Atwood? Here’s a test - what is your first reaction to these names: Siken, Wilde, Sherl, Bronte, Whitman, Yeats, Neruda, Dickens, Cummings? Do you write on a typewriter? Or do you jot things onto scrap corners of paper and coffee shop napkins, cramming words together in your effort to get them down? Have you ever written about your biggest fear? Have you ever written about your greatest joy? Have you ever experienced a moment, knowing full well that words cannot do it justice? Do you feel too deeply? Do words fill your mind, coming out in the form of tears and blood and spilled ink? Do you suffer? Have you ever held words in your fist, and thrown them in someone’s face? I’ll ask again; do you suffer? When suffering, do you keep quiet, or do you turn to loved ones’ to ease your pain? How does it make you feel knowing that we all suffer, every single person? Now, how do you feel knowing that words can ease your suffering? Do you drink coffee, tea, or Diet Coke when writing? What is your prefered style of writing: poetry, prose, flash fiction, essay, or something else? Would you still write if no eyes ever saw your words? How does it make you feel that this is quite a possibility? How does it feel knowing that you are brave, and cowardly, and loving, and unkind? How does it make you feel knowing that writing about these things cannot change them? What is the most stripped-down, bare-hearted sentence you have ever written? Was it a confession of undying love, or burning hate?"