You might think this is a strange thing to ponder. Words. Why bother? We all use them. Some are good at it. Others get by just fine. Being understood is key. We usually succeed in getting a message across.
I love words. Words are tools. Words are toys. I love playing with them. Breaking the rules with them. Dragging them through the dirt to see what they look like when they are dirty. Cleaning them and hanging them up to dry before taking them inside, folding them and saving them for a new day.
Sometimes, I will bend them, twist them or gut them out of sheer curiosity to see what is inside. Or take one for a spin and leave it dizzy and alone in the middle of a sentence and then attack it relentlessly and violently, just to see what happens when other words exert each their own strong will on it. Will my word defend itself by striking out with razor sharp staccato, or will it resign and retreat to a quiet corner, seeking solitude so it can lick its wounds in peace?
Some days a hungry and agressive word can choose to attack, wielding a lethal sword that carves and slits and slices into its quarry, violently tearing it apart before hurtling on into the night in search of its next victim.
On other days a word will slow down time and lightly caress the back of its closest friend, or reach out to it nearest and dearest neighbours with long vowels and aural rhymes and harmonies and share its soothing lament of love or loss. A requiem for relatives that fell in a war years ago.
And sometimes words are not enough…
6 Comments
MY WORD.
Hey Peter
(The word nerd)
Yes, you’re quite rigth.
Words as tools must rely on rules, and they’re not for fools
Words don´t come easy to me
how can I find a way, to make you see……………………
he he
Gammelt 80′er nummer. Ren nostalgi….dengang verden ikke var af lave, og der ikke var noget der hed internet….
Verden har altid været af lave, det mente i hvert fald Sokrates (jeg tror nok, det var ham, det var i hvert fald for meget længe siden). Måske er det kun “gamle mennesker”, der synes at det er helt galt. Det er i hvert fald aldrig de unge, man hører sige det.
Ja, det var bare en lille strøtanke.
Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I say nothing …..