Classic Poem

Why do we fear words?
They can be rose-petal hands,
Cool, fragrant hands stroking our faces,
And sometimes cups of refreshing drink
Sipped in summer by thirsty lips.

Why do we fear words?
Some words are secret bells, the echoes
of their tone announce the start of a magic
And abundant time
Steeped in feeling and life,
So why should we fear words?

We took to silence
We did not want our secrets to pass our lips
We thought that words amassed an unseen monster
Pent up inside the letters, hiding from the ear of time
So we battened down the words
And did not let them spread the night for us
With a pillow of music, fragrance, hopes,
And warm cups.

Why do we fear words?
They are a back door of love through which
Tomorrows come, uncertain
Let us raise from words the drape of silence
They are a window of light in which appears
All that we have hidden and kept covered in our depths.
When will this tedious silence ever find
That now we love the words again?

And why do we fear words?
They are the friends that come to us
From distant spaces in the soul
They surprise us, catch us unaware,
And sing for us, and a thousand ideas are born
Ideas that were dormant in us, never before expressed
But the friendly words, the words
Offer them as gifts:
Why should we not love words?
. . . .

Why do we fear words?
Yesterday their thorns may have wounded us
But often they have taken us up in their arms
Perfuming with their sweetness our desire
If they stung us
If they left us cold
How many times did they touch us with a promise
Tomorrow they will lavish on us life and roses
Ah! Let them brim, our cups, with words!

One day we will build a nest of dreams with words
High up, a trellis for the ivies
Fed with poetry
Watered with words
We will build a balcony for modest roses
Its pillars made of words
And a pathway floating in the deep shade
Shielded by words.

Our life in innocence we dedicated
A prayer
To no one but to words.