How can a word be good are bad?

They are ever blameless.

We the ones that use them,

to express ourselves;

show our feelings, tell a tale.

Hold a mirror to the world

and say. “There you are world.

Is that really you?”

 

We use them to tell of our feelings.

Yet they have no physical depth.

Mere scratching on a page.

How then do they have so much power?

Silent, flat on the paper.

Beauty, ugly, calm, fear and rage.

 

Words that dance in the mind

when all the world seems dark.

Words that jump from a pen,

writing of wonders seen.

 

There are no bad words,

only ugly thoughts.

Though even these are

best expressed in words.

 

David Garlick, Puerto Vallarta, March, 1998