Critical Thinking

Looking for a graphic, I was pleased
to find something by an artist I knew.
The late Blaine Hall painted The Critic,
but it posted without credit given to Hall.

Haters hate and liars lie,
but sometimes they must take a moment off
and entertain some other frame of mind.
Lovers love and sighers sigh,
but not non-stop. They have to fit in time
for speech and work and hobbies (if they're
so inclined). Readers read what writers write,
but only a small portion, for in truth, the
writers write much more than ever meets another eye, and some of what I've read of late did not amuse
and could have used a bit of working on.
Advantages of writing over speaking: opportunity
to re-do, re-vamp, edit; tweaking so that what one
wants to say is really said, and not what others
only think you mean. And even when it's clear
and true, at least to you, the haters still will hate.
The world is full of critics, always has been,
always will. And critics criticize, no matter what
the subject is - it's what they do;
they really cannot help it.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2014