Some people think Twitter is a mindless diversion, a waste of time for the serious writer. I suppose this can be the case. But today I’m musing that it doesn’t need to be that way. First, for a sad reason. And second, for a happy one.

Yesterday on Twitter, I learned of a tragic event in our Social Media world. A single tweet from one of my High Calling editors propelled me to write from the heart, and quickly, this piece called Even a Hero: The Unlikely Suicide of Trey Pennington.

On the flip side, I have been bantering throughout the day with Duane Scott. He discovered he is in my new book, albeit not by name (I forgot to tell him the dangers of being friends with an author).

Rereading one of his tweets, after he discovered the truth of his bookly condition, I was struck by how poetic the tweet was. So I gave it a title and made it march in little lines, and here it is…

The Reader

I will guffaw
extra loud tonight,
a guffaw loud enough
to wake you, dreamless
night awaiting, over deeds
done in printed books.

Is Twitter really mindless for the writer? Only if he or she stops paying attention.

Post by L.L. Barkat. Visit L.L. at Seedlings in Stone, for more on writing, poetry, art and life.
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