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Words: Captors or Liberators?

by Glenn Currier

Words are chains
tying me to this piece of earth called Texas.

They are atoms
of the language
taught by Americans and Cajuns
and Catholics and Texans
who urged me with exclamation points
to become them.
Be a good Catholic boy!
and a proud American!
Real Texans like chili so hot it scalds your tongue
but you don't care!
Joie de vivre!
but keep the family's secrets!

Words are wings.
They fly me into my heart,
across oceans and deserts
to Paris, Chile, Mexico and Tangiers
to the flora of Victoria
and the glory of the Incas.

Words are fingers
of my mind
opening books
by Plato, O'Neill, and Collins
Ludlum, Brock, Aquinas, and Locke.

They are feet
kicking questions
into false institutional facades.

They are knives
unleashing the poet
speaking longings, discontents,
and love.

I hate American culture
its lingual arrogance:
"By God those people should speak American!"
But "those people"
deliver me...
to the lyrics of their glens
the dervish of their pens
the landscape of their time
their poems and their crime.

America is poor
in its alien deafness
to the sounds
beyond our shores.

America is rich
when its eyes see
and its heart is open
and its fears are mute.

I am split..
a slave to words
my capors
my liberators.

01/25/2004

Author's Note: This is a very early draft, any suggestions are much appreciated.

Posted on 01/25/2004
Copyright © 2024 Glenn Currier

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Robert Cameron Hazelton on 01/25/04 at 08:40 PM

Hi Glenn, I really like your poem about words. For me words are definitely wings, and many more things as you so eloquently put. Very nice.

Posted by Charles E Minshall on 01/25/04 at 09:29 PM

A wordy excellent poem Glen....Charlie

Posted by Ashok Sharda on 01/26/04 at 02:53 PM

Words are chains binding us to a definite meaning bound by the associated experience ( word experience). They also tend to work as a buffer turning every direct experience into a second hand. So much that we have started thinking ( using words) feelings and sensing. But words can be a means tothe ultimate attainment of our goals in the form of vibrations. So far, its we, who are using the words rather than the words playing its politics. But it so happens that we start playing with the words ending up words playing with us.

Posted by David R Spellman on 01/26/04 at 11:45 PM

Some great and interesting comparisons used here Glenn. I especially liked "They are feet kicking questions into false institutional facades." Certainly the power of words is international and spans the breadth of time. Well captured here.

Posted by Michele Schottelkorb on 01/30/04 at 12:59 AM

i wouldn't change it, and if you do, please, not much... well conveyed piece... you FEEL the words and they are biting and sad and bitter and raw and angry and emotional and loving... excellent piece... blessings...

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