You know those times when what is being said in the conversation goes right past the other person?
The break-through moments when you realize that the friend you thought you were arguing with was just using a different word?
All of the words we have are amazing, and powerful, and tricky. Because they are also flimsy and tough to hold on to or pass around.
Flimsy Words
These flimsy words,
struggling to create pale imitations
at best
of the truth we know and love
truth of who I am
of who you are
truth of the world around us both
truth of Truth itself
These flimsy words,
created, imbued with meaning
barely able to hold together
building blocks of smoke and mist
paints of mist
but we have so little choice
These flimsy words
the only bridge
which may yet bind
you and I, mind to mind
Written 6/17/07
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Flimsy Words
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3 comments:
My biggest struggle with words (or at least my ability to use them!) is with trying to give some sort of voice to the glimpses I get of the holy, the divine, the ultimate things that reach way beyond me and my little slice of time and understanding. Words always make these experiences seem so pedestrian. I go from feeling like I'm flying before I try using words to feeling like I'm plodding along through mud when I bring words into the situation. I also have pretty strong synesthete tendencies, so I sometimes experience things in ways that I have trouble explaining. How do you tell someone how you feel about the color of Thursday or preaching class or that music moves you not just because it's beautiful but because of its texture or shape or color? And this is all without even disagreeing with anyone...
this is why I write poetry. I get to try to suggest how I see and experience the world.
I write poetry for the same reason ymp. Somehow those flimsy words get a little more robust in a poem, maybe because they get a little looser, a little thinner, a little less certain and so they can stretch and cover so much more than normal.
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