The Life Words Breathe

Let's face one Reality: Words are crazy. Language is one of the hardest things to call one's self mastering, and I would daresay not many people would honestly profess to know the exact words to use, under all circumstances, to exact the desired effect on the intended hearer. No matter how good you are, the fact is that there is always a point of hesitancy that comes to all of us, either because we question which word most accurately conveys the sentiments we want to relay, or else we doubt that the selected word or words will (even if it is correct), once uttered, not (somehow) change mid-air, or mid-sentence, on the email, or text message. We don't want our shouting to be heard, even though we are being passive-aggressive. Or somehow our passion doesn't translate for one reason or another.

The truth is that words do seem to have a mystical existence, that is completely separate and apart from the author penning them. We really can't escape that. Some philosophers have conjectured and speculated that humans are incapable of adequately conveying the pure essence of what happens to us in words. Literally, meaning gets "lost in translation."

But isn't that like what happens when light travels along a vessel: Some of its intensity is absorbed, dimenished along the way? The only thing one can do, then, is to do the best we can to create an instrument that helps retain as much of the original strength as possible so that it can be useful. That's the aim of capturing solar energy and harnessing the power of lasers, isn't it?

So it is with words. To me, our whole task of living is to make use - make sense, if you will - of what happens to us, to our world. And words play a major role in how we COMMUNICATE significance. Words are universal and most accessible. But so is art. As abstract, and jumbled, and as hard-to-figure as it sometimes is, Art, too, remains a universal language.

So what if you mixed Word with Art...What do you get? WordArt. Or poetry, the representation of thoughts and ideas in a meaningful, yet abstract manner. This is not Webster-Merriam's definition of poetry but I believe it does sum up the significance of Poetry. Poetry has the potential to unlock the window to the soul. It has the ability to speak [of] Life, literally, or to speak [of] Death. Regardless of which the given topic may do at a particular moment, in a particular circumstance, poetry conveys the authors sentiment on the issue. The author gives the words license to breathe meaning into what was once only a glimmer of an idea, a concept. Once it is written down or spoken, it travels through time and space and interacts with circumstance. And creates relevance.

But wait: relevance is only bestowed by permission of the hearer, the reader, the person on the receiving end. Our task, as writer ends where purpose and relevance picks up at. Phew! What a relief that is!