Words Are To Writers

Words are to writers like flowers to bees, Oil to engines and thank you to please. They may be as heavy as concrete or lead Or light as feather and thoughts in our heads. They may cut like a knife and bite like a snake, Or purr like a kitten and calm all our aches. Letters combined in word perfect tense Lift humanity higher like pauper to prince. Words are like paint before canvas lay bare In the hands of the artist, eternity’s there. Waiting to brush one more story-book tale From right of nowhere, words take to sail. With wind from the writer and ink from the pen, Destinies change for women and men. From The Iliad and Odyssey to Paine’s Common Sense, Plato’s Apology to Shelley’s Poetic Defense. From Genesis to Leviticus and Matthew to St. John, Aristotle’s Ethics to White’s Trumpet of the Swan. From the US Constitution to King’s “I Have a Dream,” Words are to writers as air is to breath. They transcend human consciousness And send us well past Mars, Making movies, plays and music move us To the moon and stars. The possibilities are limitless When words are focused clear; If one merely stops to think it through: They’re always waiting near.