When was the last time you whispered?

I happen to whisper all the time. Truth be told, I think a piece of poetry is best if you are hesitant to speak it at anything louder than a whisper, especially haiku. Whispered poetry is the kind I'm most drawn to and I whisper them often both when I'm composing and writing them and when I'm simply reading them.

In my own poetry, if it does not sound best when it is whispered, I feel I have failed.

Of course, this isn't the way of many, but it is my way and it is the way I read the words of others. Writing words that whisper gives them a caress, an intimacy, a tenderness they need and cannot reach otherwise. I also think to read the words of others with a whisper gives their words something the author might or perhaps ought to have intended.

Many will disagree, and I do understand why they and even I do it but, I think shouted words are an ugliness we can much do without. If intentionally or unintentionally your words shout on the page, I think you - and I - can do better.

We ought to do better.