When Words Fail...

I have often been at a loss of words. Instead of inventing new ways of expressing what's going on in my head and heart, I reach out to poets who have masterfully crafted words that capture my thoughts better than I could have.

Which is why I say - when words fail, use poetry.

Here are some examples:

"To live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else."

• Emily Dickinson (To live is so startling)

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so..."

• John Donne (Holy Sonnet X)

"Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself."

• Walt Whitman (Song of Myself)

"Your presence is a poem - one I read without words, one I feel without end."

• Sylvr Saffyr )Your Presence)

And one of my favorites is Hope is the thing of feathers by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

So yeah - when words fail, use poetry.