Practicing Gestures

Here's something from a poem by Jordan Davis ("Ira will not be attending the meeting") to add to my list of quotations about the provisional character of what we do:

So much of life is practicing gestures.
So much of living is evaluating
Those around you for signs of damage.

For comparison, check my post on Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude, as well as this one, with my Mom's comment about "anything worth doing is worth doing poorly."

I also love the effect of the line break after "evaluating", as the gerund moves from the general (evaluating as such) to the particular (evaluating "those around you ...").