Words
~ WC Wentworth
Words are deeds. The words we hear
May revolutionize or rear
A mighty state. The words we read
May be a spiritual deed
Excelling any fleshly one,
As much as the celestial sun
Transcends a bonfire, made to throw
A light upon some raree-show.
A simple proverb tagged with rhyme
May colour half the course of time;
The pregnant saying of a sage
May influence every coming age;
A song in its effects may be
More glorious than Thermopylae,
And many a lay that schoolboys scan
A nobler feat than Inkerman.
***
Still recovering from the DNC and I wasn't even there.
BO's speech was captivating as usual but not quite as soaring as expected. More measured and tinged with the reality of office.
While I'm adoring US speech-making, I must also confess that I love discovering those addresses by the now-famous to college graduating classes. The 1996 speech by Nora Ephron especially resonated with me recently. Some lines from it such as:
"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."
and, this one...
"Yogi Berra, the former New York Yankee who made a specialty of saying things that were famously maladroit, quoted himself at a recent commencement speech he gave. "When you see a fork in the road," he said, "take it."
And while I'm on my own soapbox, as a parent fuming at the disparities between public and private schools in this land of the fair-go, this not- so-funny article by a comedian also struck a chord.
