Words are all we have

Words are all they have…

The artist has got a brush, canvas, as well as a diverse range of colors and mediums with which to work and produce a piece worthy of marvel in Le Lourve.

The musician has got his sounds, vocal and instrumental, his sense of tone to create rhythms ad lib.

The photographer has lens and light, a fancy device to play with and thus manipulate a ‘thing of beauty’ into print forever.

And the writer: What of poet, playwright and novelist? Where is his palette, how does his work with his instruments and what technology can he avail to creation a masterpiece, to create art that is as deserving of fame, history and memory as those of the artist, musician or photographer?

Alas, he possesses no such tangibles; only words and the amorphousness of imagination.

Yes, only a repository of words and the resourcefulness of a fertile imagination. And they are fueled by a confident conviction of thought and a fervent desire to etch - with words – the many conundrums of life across age and space, beyond culture and geography, yet within the universal realm of a common, but diverse human experience.

And thus – with imagination and words, with thoughts and questions, the writer produces a work of art that offers us a diverse gamut of landscapes, a painting that captures the multidimensional canvas of our humanity and the sculptures of characters that have been etched in Literature for time immemorial.

And thus – with imagination and words, the writer chooses carefully, sometimes on instinct, sometimes with more careful thought, the words to use and the effect to create, how to arrange his choice of diction on the canvas of mere paper so that the words chosen and their manner of juxtaposition reveal the savageries of war or the debaucheries of youth, throw light on a soul searching for answers or a complex character immersed in thoughtful deliberations or simply prompt questions which propel the minds and the hearts of our humanity.

And thus – with a fertile imagination and choice diction, we are introduced to the staccato of suppressed anger, the pitch of exaggerated excitement, the majestic beat of ambition and the distinctive peals of liberty. Thus, with an imagination that transcends reality and an array of words concocted to question convention, the writer brings to the observant reader and the discerning mind the diverse rhythms that exist in the soulful music of our humanity.

And thus – with virile words and intellectual imagination, we are introduced to a snapshot in time, a colorful image of a landscape lost in history, a bleak picture of present circumstance, a slide of childlike joy or aging misery or an image that mirrors our own. And by doing so, by adjusting the lens of perception, considering the color of emotion and capturing the essence of an occasion, the writer, with words being all he has, throws light on the vibrant mosaic of our humanity.

And thus – in the writer we have the artist and the musician, the sculptor and the photographer, the caricaturist and the cinematographer - the ultimate artist –the creator of character, the sculptor of emotion, the melodious lyricist, the lampooning humorist, the artist who directs people and places to walk across the territory of our mind and find a special place somewhere within its profound geography. 

And, words are all we have…