What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words
Words in papers, words in books
Words on TV, words for crooks
Words of comfort, words of peace
Words to make the fighting cease
Words to tell you what to do
Words are working hard for you
Eat your words but don't go hungry
Words have always nearly hung me
— from Wordy Rappinghood by Tom Tom Club
It reminded me of my own love affair with words and the fact that I have always been fascinated by and write a lot of them in my paintings.
Diction, ekphrasis, epistrophe, haiku, meter, interjection, lyric, metaphor, monostich, neologism, onomatopoeia, phrase, present perfect, pun, rhythm, simile, stanza, vernacular, all beautiful in meaning and in sound. All intoxicating and so fecund.
I used to keep copious notes on scraps of paper and notebooks but when Twitter came along I started to use it as a word/phrase depository, writing and posting something everyday.
For over 6 years I have faithfully added a phrase, poem, scrap of a sentence or line that now amount to 19,450 words as of today!
The words are often deliberately vague and enigmatic. They are gleaned from my daily life, from overheard conversations, advertising sources, TV, film and music and other sources. I blend them, work on them so they become my words, obvious or vague and sometimes deeply personal. This has become a rich reservoir of ideas in which to fish!
I aim to do something with all these words, a separate project, an epic poem maybe!
Today's words — He slow acId man, diSHINg out shards, now that thE cows have all come home — https://twitter.com/busytinsnips.