The beauty of words

Words have power.  There is no doubt of that.  They can hurt.  They can inspire.  They can change the world.  No?  How about, "I have a dream..."  Words have power!

I personally like simple sentences.   Short statements.  One complete thought.  Then a period.  Now I know what I just wrote is not grammatically correct.  Grammar and beauty have little in common.  The period means something more than there is a subject and a verb and maybe and object.  The period means, "Stop.  Think about the words you just read."   Now, I don't pretend there is great beauty in these little sentences.  But there is a poetry there.  And that is beautiful.  If only to me.

Alliteration and lists can be amazing.  Dylan Thomas was a master at it.  I mean, can't you just see a "bat black belfry"?  And can't you feel the "see saw sea with with you riding on it"?  And there is no mistaking his meaning in saying, "Lie down, lie easy.  Let me shipwreck in your thighs."  Not once does he say what he is really saying, but there is certainly no mistaking his meaning. 

So much so that my English professor teaching Under Milk Wood (English as in she was from England, living in England, teaching in England, and yes teaching English literature - nice little double meaning) couldn't even listen to me speak the words without turning a bright red.  It was a situation I found rather interesting.  She was very proper.  I was very American.  And in this particular, I was way less puritanical, though we in America are often far more puritanical than our English counterparts.  Though we are probably most often less proper, too. 

The ability to draw a picture in the mind of your reader and manipulate that picture is an ability I aspire to achieve.  I will never be a Dylan Thomas.  I don't drink enough.  I'm not sad enough.  I have no screaming demons acting as my muse.  But I do have Dylan Thomas.  And D H Lawrence.  And William Shakespeare.  And even Charles Dickens.  And especially Ernest Hemingway. 

You know it when you hear it.  You know it when the words soothe your brain and touch your soul.  There is beauty in words too.