#wordshavepower

For years I've heard the word "excelsior" attached to all sorts of grand declarations, municipalities, and even a Star Trek starship. Today I learned that the definition of this word is, " Slender, curved wood shavings used especially for packing." I'm a touch disappointed by that. #words #wordshavePower #definitions #randomthoughts

Writers are dangerous. Not because they’ve got tanks or money or power. No. Because they can set fire to the inside of your skull with nothing more than a sentence. They make up countries you could swear you’ve visited. Histories you could swear you’ve lived. People you could swear you’ve loved. And they do it without asking permission. No borders. No visas. No twelve-part economic feasibility study from some smug guy in a tie. A good author doesn’t just tell you a story. They smuggle in mirrors. Make you look even when you’d rather scroll. They hand you keys to doors you didn’t even know were in your head. They whisper heresies, hopes, and horrors straight into your bloodstream until page one feels like it happened to somebody else. And poets? Worse. Oh, much worse. They take the whole messy, contradictory, heartbreaking human condition and distill it down until it hits you like a shot of something you absolutely can’t afford but drink anyway. They remind you language is alive. It can grow teeth. Or wings. Or claws. Depending on the day. We need them. Not just for escape - though, god, a good book can be a lifeboat. We need them to imagine better worlds so we know what we’re missing. Worse worlds so we know what to fight. We need them to break our hearts in safe places so we know how to survive when life comes swinging for real. Because without writers? Our maps would end where the world already does. And nothing new would ever be born. #WritingMatters #BooksChangeLives #Poetry #Storytelling #ReadMore #WordsHavePower