Word

Without another word spoken on either side, the lodger took from his great trunk, a kind of temple, shining as of polished silver, and placed it carefully on the table.

“Be careful what you say—you may have to eat your words.”

I don’t think so much about eating my words as about wearing them. When someone sees me, the words come back to haunt like a miasma around me. No matter how colourful my dress, bad words turn everything grey and muddy brown.

Think how much acceptance Mary showed when she said:

»Let it be done to me according to thy word.«

Rotor is a fine palindrome, thought Frank Leigh Dearie as he ambled down the Lost Highway.

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We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.

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 – Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
 – Sand and Foam [1926]

»Therefore« is a word the poet must not know.

(Andre Gide)

Isn't it weird that words work as well as they do? Think about it.

A word has the power to define, to bind, to create, to destroy. Truely, a poet has power undreamt of by kings.

My favourite word in the English language is »language«. However, if you gave me a slightly larger set of words to choose from I might have more difficulty expressing a preference.

A word after a word after a word is power.

(Margaret Atwood)

What I feel for you,
I can't put in words,
language won't hold
my desire.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

(John F. Kennedy)

Words beginning with the »sn« sound in English are often unpleasant: snide, snob, snigger, sneer, snicker, snub, snert, snotty, snippy, snit, snarl, snore, sneak, snag. »Snow« is a word over which there is debate and even an annual change of heart. The first snowfall is almost always welcomed. Christmas snow is considered magical. But too much of a good thing for too long and March blizzards push »snow« into line with the rest of the »sn« words.

And then some more words come along and a paragraph is born.