written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Tuesday 4 June 2013

The pen is mightier...


It really does sounds quite dull; a word, just a single little word. A combination of letters which are just squiggly lines really. It’s just ink on a page. A dictionary may have been the most boring thing I remember from high school. My tutor would make us pick up the dictionary, and find words we’d never heard of and learn it every single lesson. But my gods I’m so glad she did. In my opinion words are EXTREMELY powerful. You can look at a word, ponder its sound and origin and curves yet there is so much more than that. The physicality of words, the meaning, how it’s evolved through time through tongue and paper, how many have been lost and the ones we’ve invented have influenced our actions since we learnt to talk.

The written word has influenced for centuries. Words are used to express opinion, which often over time become fact in society’s mentality. The most influential example of the written word must be religion. None in particular, they’re all pretty fierce, but religion is a good example of how the written word stirs action whether those actions are negative or positive. Words create emotion, words start action, words mean consequence, words can mean change; quite simply words are what we live by. So binding them in a book with one little definition doesn’t nearly do language justice. You can whack an individual over the head with a book will bloody hurt, but publishing the contents of a book featuring strong opinions could cause far more damage.

Words are bloody lethal. This is why I’m a writer. I hold so much respect for language and the power it holds. I’m finish with a mini-saga I wrote that was put into my creative writing portfolio. I think it’s an example of how powerful words can be in only 50 words.

“Delicate but with fiery beauty the forest nymph dances spreading life across the land, only to be praised by gnashing machines, her blood seeping and staining the earth in silent protest. Her song haunts in the wind, mingling with the soft cry of a solitary wolf roaming the dusky twilight”.

3 comments:

Colin Daives said...

I would love to read that mini saga.

The power of words is amazing. And the spells you cast, the pictures you draw, the emotions you provoke.

Word magic.

Unknown said...

Exam board next week - time to see what those bloody words are worth - hopefully more than my chewed nail stumps! As usual, ethereal stuff lady.

We need to sort some sort of proper booze up over summer by the way ;-)

L xxx

Ashley Lister said...

Powerful mini-saga (which had a lovely poetic feel to it) and some valid points on the power of words.

Great post,

Ash