words
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Haiku
words like winter windspirit-piercing shards of icearrows to the heart Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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Preachers and Poets
I know a womanwho writes beautiful words,words of healing and encouragement.Her meditations inspire.Her reflections open closed hearts. But in daily life,she speaks with harshness and cruelty,slashing and burning.She spews verbal napalmthat strips the foliagefrom human hearts. This is a dangerfor… Continue reading
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Texting
A billion text messagewill be sent today.Gather them togetherand weigh their worth.What has been said, really? The next text you send,let it have meaning.Your next post to Facebook–wait until you're ready to speaksome measure of truthdeep from the heart.Your next… Continue reading
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A Warning about Words
The danger in preaching(so we've been told)is the failure to practice. The danger in writingis the failureto follow the vision we espouse. The danger in everyday speechis the risk of stumbling from the conversationin the opposite direction of our assertions. The… Continue reading
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The Border of Language
I like lurking at the border of language,where the tongue blurs, slurs with vagueness. I hover here at the brink of Eden,eager to taste my own marrow. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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My Words
The words I write(what you read in this moment)gestate for days–weeks–months–in some cases for decades,never spring from my writer's womb formed and ready to stand. I lick them clean.I nurse.I wean. Then comes the day(for a few, but far from all)when… Continue reading
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Tight
I throw you a word:tight. How do you respond? Positively? "She and I are tight." "You in those tight jeans–perfect." Negatively? "He's a tightwad." "Why are you so uptight?" It's just one word,yet packed with possible… Continue reading
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“The Least Conspicuous Miracles”
Photographer Robert Adamsencourages us to walkat "a pace that allows regardfor the least conspicuous miracles."He urges us to develop"a kind of friendship with things." I wish I'd written those lines;I hear the poet within the photographer. And indeed, Adam's photographycaptures those least… Continue reading
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A Dozen Words
Give me a dozen words,and I shall give you a poem. Give me a dozen words,and you have given me a poem. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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We Return from the Mountain
We return from the mountain,faces glowingdesperate to describeour encounter with Mystery,but the words for which we reach elude us,don't yet exist–not in English,not in any human tongue. We try:"It's painful but welcome purging," we say."It's corrosive but compassionate reframing…" See? Even these words,like… Continue reading