We are going to discuss communication. Clear communication; communication for connection and understanding, it is vital in almost every area of life but, my goodness, how often do we misunderstand, misconnect and misconstrue words!
There are five levels of communication, both for the words we speak and the level at which we listen, so we will have a bit of a look at these over the next few posts. It is pretty scary stuff really because most of us do not get past the first couple of levels!
For today though we will begin with poetry. This poem was written for a Toastmasters Speech back in 1998.
Talk and Listen : poetry by Estelle D. © 1998
Talk and Listen were well acquainted,
Together they were often mated,
Talk always made a lot of noise,
Listen showed much more poise,
Was quieter and deeper,
Of her tongue a good keeper.
Talk was like the babbling brook,
Never knowing silence,
Listen knew the babbling brook was silenced by the pool,
And that the babblings of man,
Often proved him to be ,
Only a fool.
Talk was fond of saying much,
This and That and Such and Such,
An opinion on everything,
Talk did hold,
Believing it duty,
That everyone be told.
Listen was quiet when another spoke,
Affirmed their worth,
Never took them as a joke,
Listen never casually handed out advice,
Found it unnecessary to her own opinion,
Others to entice.
From Talk people tried to hide,
Found Talk a vexation,
And hard to abide,
Listen, however, was quietly sought,
Listen it was found,
Wisdom brought.
In the fullness of time,
Listen came of age,
And was given a place,
Upon Life's stage,
Listen was considered a wise old sage,
For she knew Talk one should carefully gauge.
Way leads onto Way 