Words: Captors or Liberators? by Glenn CurrierWords 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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