Risks

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to appear sentimental
To reach out for another is to risk involvement
To expose your feelings is to risk exposing
your true self
To place your dreams, your ideas before a crowd
is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing...does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
They may avoid pain and suffering, but they cannot learn,
feel, change, grow, live, or love.
Chained by their certitudes, they are a slave...
They have forfeited their right to freedom.
Only a person who risks in truly free.

Tantalum's Poems
Poet's Corner