We are made of words.
Scott Momaday
Words to thoughts are
Like winds to sail, Heidegger said;
Keep words well-trimmed to thought
Simple, honest, true
Sail stays close to the wind
The ship keeps her course.
Common words, special words, foreign words
Words of wisdom tell stories to be saved by.
I have denied the gift
By placing feelings in parentheses
And periods before my heart’s desire,
And learned to turn deaf ears
Avoiding the blade of healing saber,
Turning an echo chamber into a sarcophagus.
Simplicity, honesty and truth
Are displaced by the rules of grammar,
As I hammer my round feelings
Into a square hole.
Words are the soul’s pulses
Made of tears and flesh
That speak my heart to your heart.
1999
Year of the Rabbit
From “Star Dust”
yenna yi 