Words

 

Photo by Janko Ferlic from Pexels

Descartes suggested that I live, and am what’s in my mind

The images and expressions there – are all uniquely mine

So how can I share that world, so that you can see

The things that I experience there – seen just by me?

 

We use our words – to carry others to where

We can unveil our private mysteries

We open up our vistas

Through our vocab-lary

 

One-hundred-thousand-seventy some

Words are in use – on Oxford’s page

Plus half a hundred-thousand – now extinct

That were once all the rage

 

But these it seems are inadequate

To share our world – far and wide

So perhaps a quarter million more

From foreign tongues have been supplied

 

So why is there such confusion

Often about the things we say?

Do we even listen

When others’ thoughts they relay?

 

Padre