Words

You can’t hurt words. Lord knows I’ve tried. For years I tortured words, twisted them, kicked them about. For a time, it was just me against words. The more I hammered on them the more they jumped back up and mocked me. There is a God of words. He protects words from politicians, lawyers and poets. I learned the hard way that you have to love words. They are not weapons, there’ not flags, not megaphones. Loving words means knowing when not to use them. This is just respectful. You won’t hurt their feelings. but if you misuse their power to Illustrate and illuminate, they will smear and smudge, or shout too loud. Words do not need much company; just enough of themselves to actually say something real. You can’t hurt words, and in themselves they do not lie, it’s only the heart that lies, and of course, untold numbers of poets.