Oh what fun we shall have in the Word Kitchen today!
Because, let’s face it….
Words – specifically nouns- are deliciousness itself…..and versatile ( see how easily the adjective “delicious” morphed into its concordant noun “deliciousness “? Nouns are little miracles!
Well….all words are miracles -essential, surprising, magical, mouth-watering miracles….a vast garden of delight, lettuces of loquaciousness, carrots of contradiction, tomatoes of truth, peppers of profundity! Words are fertile flowers of color, fragrance and taste, of every size, shape, height and endurance. Words are everything we can possibly think of, so they might as well be fish so that we, hungry fishermen, can haul them into our nets whenever the tides are high!
Or low, for that matter, since words are ( to employ one of my favorites) ubiquitous!
Imagine a grey day at sea, winds blowing gently but steadily, the sharp sun peeking through every so often, to bless our efforts, and the deep blue waters before us teeming with……what else? Words!
Such a thick school of the noun species swimming about, one hardly knows where to put the net down!
Avast, me fellows, toss away!
The oily net sinks slowly but soon we feel the satisfaction of a full haul of nouns, rich, squirming, heavier still, urgent with their salty desire to serve us a full meal of nourishing language: bass, tuna, tartar sauce, lemon ( a piquant noun), cream, caviar, salt, water, shoreline, sand, feet, boats, proper nouns like Marvin, Peter, Embarcadero, Chicago, and pronouns like you, her, him, she and it! The net is full….full of surprises only nouns can provide: chocolate , pie, cars, plows, carriages, trees, skies, fingernails, corpses, books, toothpaste, noses, roses, turtles, tulips , tambourines, tea kettles and trout. Chamomile, chintz, meringue, mustard, mincemeat, morsels, mussels, meat pies, lunatics and louses.
Oh look, alive within the massive haul, wriggling about: curtains, lamps, cigarettes, eyedrops, bandages, bamboo, billiard balls and baloney! Lipstick, tweezers, nasal spray, penicillin, condoms, candy, lampshades, rugs, bowls, hats, braids, eyes, paint, pens, puppies, cats, rain, clouds, Presidents, bombs and bastilles!
What a haul!
The fishing day has barely dawned! And already we dive in and cannot stop water ballet- ing with the diversity of possibilities! We are wet with words, moist from meanings and multitudes, drenched in designations, lubbered by language…..yes, the opportunities to invent words fill up all our empty spaces….that’s because words are, as stated above, miracles, and like infinite genies in a lamp, they will do your bidding, no matter how outrageous, despite how outlandish the demands….words are so majestic and marvelous, like water itself, that sometimes I think words invented us, rather than the other way around!
And we are fishermen, all!
Words are our natural habitat…..so cast those nets, which will be forever filled with inspiration.
Bon Voyage and Bon Appetite!