My mother says, words, like all things, come from God
My father, just as religious, is certain it comes from study,
Kneeling at the altar of reading.
Words come from books, my son says. Although after thinking
He concludes they come from cave dwellers.
Maybe he has a point.
The grunting of my 3-year-old, who knows words but prefers grunts and growls to communicate, seems to say:
What’s the point about worrying with words at all when we just use our words to talk about the mundane, we silently
tiptoe around the inconceivable fact that is existence?
Somewhere down the line, life has a way of stripping that child-like wonder from us.
And it takes work. It takes poetry to try and move to spaces
where lines blur,
where we can still wonder at the glory of the sun and sunrises.
And a torrent of words appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
Sometimes.
Mar de Meditaciones 
I love when “a torrent of words appearing seemingly out of nowhere” and I can communicate in a meaningful way, but most of the time I feel like your 3-year old, ‘grunting and growling’. Ugh, see? Thanks for sharing your poem. 🙂
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Jonathan, you have put words on paper that signify the importance of poetry as a way to communicate. Nature knows the stream of talk between the poet and existence.
I just looked at your bio and see that you live in Virginia. I just moved to Gainesville in Prince William County.
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“It takes poetry to try and move to spaces
where lines blur,” I love this rumination of where words come from. Sometimes we need them and sometimes they fail to express the morning sky.
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And that is what I hope kids growing up learn, yet there is a time and place for ‘grunts and growls’, too, another poem to tell why? Perhaps this year of being in place has shown us the difference, & to kids, too.
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I love the variety of answers you captured in your poem, and the uncertainty of the ending. #truth
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Jonathan, your words serve to remind us of the potential power and magic poetry can inject into our lives. It is an antidote for the wonder lost. Your have captured this sense in your well chosen words.
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Sometimes grunts and growls seem more appropriate! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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What a lovely meditation on words and how we interact with them (even down to whether to utter them, or to grunt or growl instead!) in our lives.
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Hi, Jonathan–It is so good to have you among us! I love these lines:
“And it takes work. It takes poetry to try and move to spaces
where lines blur”
which remind us that sometimes clarity comes when things are most blurred, if we are willing to work at it.
Wishing you a peaceful end to the school year!
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Jonathan, wow, those words tell lots of stories. I found myself answering your question, as well. Where do words come from? I love your conclusion. To get back the child-like wonder “…it takes work. It takes poetry…” Yes, indeed. Lovely poem.
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