e70 one step at a time is a monologue that I recorded on September 28th, 2021, in one take, while walking in the forest in Duhamel Québec where I talk recite a poem that I wrote earlier that day about making choices and moving forward one step at a time in ‘radical listening’ mode, which is the theme of season 3 of #conscientpodcast.
Claude Schryer, September 28, 2021, Duhamel, QC
one step at a time
(September 28, 2021)
We make choices by not making choices
And we live with unbearable consequences
We hear alarm bells, but do not respond
We cling to uncertainty like a sad song
We act as if unaware and innocent
We are cognitively dissonant
We write feeble poems, like this one, to lessen our pain
We accept our fate and wait for the last day
We know that exploitation is the cause
And we know that we are it’s children
We try to change our ways but the draw is too strong
We are so comfortable, so selfish and so tragically wrong
We know that one day soon we will have to tell our kids
That we knew far too much and did far too little
We think that art can change the world if only we listened
But we know that listening is an inconvenient truth
We made a choice by not choosing
And now we live with the consequences
And yet, we know that it’s never too late to start a new
We know, deep inside, that this, is true
One step at a time
One step at a time
Stop, listen
One step at a time
One more step at a time
Stop, listen more deeply
One step at a time
One step. Stop. Listen.
Me recording a monologue while I walking in the forest...