https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Today's poem first appeared on the blog in 2017. Meanwhile, I plod on with trying to compile a new collection ...
Now, we all
use word power as a means of communication. Where would we be without language?
Yet, too often, I suspect, we underestimate the power of words to influence us,
for better or worse, depending on how and why they are targeting us. TV, Radio,
advertising, social media, one-to ones with family and friends...all claiming
to have our best interests at heart. Some do, of course, while others may well
have ulterior motives we can easily fail to spot behind every noun, verb and
pronoun employed in such a way as to try and influence, distract even do us
harm as gossip past and present can bear witness.
Words
alone are harmless enough, of course; it is how we use them that can make or
break the toughest ego, so what chance the more vulnerable among us? Tone, body
language, manipulating interpretation by use of satirical expression loaded
with double meaning... all these and more can -and not infrequently are - used
as weapons acceptable to society as a whole until fall-out occurs that catches
the attacker/s out and demands investigation; we should remember, too, that
these same weapons can be used in our defence, although the context is often
far from clear, especially where an experienced wordsmith is involved.
At
school, years ago, my old English teacher told the class never to take words or
groups of words - in written or spoken language - at face value unless we are
sure they mean us no harm; the former in particular can be so easily
misinterpreted although the spoken word, too, especially if it contradicts
certain points if view we may already have reached by ourselves. How we are
feeling at any given time also plays a part; if vulnerable for any reason, we are
as likely to take words of support or encouragement for criticism as we are to
take the art of flattery and ill-motivated persuasion at face value.
How can
we tell what's what? Well, there is no sure failsafe, but there is much to be
said for the recipient's not jumping to conclusions without due consideration
of what has been said and what may or may not have been intended; the writer or
speaker, too, needs to consider in what context he or she is using certain
words and look for alternatives where the intended meaning can be in the least
misconstrued.
Language
is far more pliable than many of us give it credit for; in the wrong hands, it
can shoot us down, just as in the right hands it can prove just the pick-me-up
we need. "Beware flattery most of all," my old teacher said,
"Flatterers invariably have hidden motives that are unlikely to be in your
best interests, whether in the longer or shorter term. Whatever, the chances
are you will end up feeling misled, conned, betrayed... such is the dark side of
the Politics of Word Power.
ENGAGING
WITH THE POLITICS OF WORD POWER
I know
not who, what, where,
yet I
feel it's here at the heart of me,
no less a
part of me than sun,
moon,
stars and rain nurturing
a
world that, when all's said
and
done, knows little for certain
once its
fine rhetoric begun working
its
mischief
Mind-body-spirit,
but left
in the
dark, once a force for good,
but not
here, tearful victim
of word
power putting us down
for
aspiring to better things,
better
ways than else we'd know
but for
a sense of its brighter light
leading
the way
World, its
rhetoric on the ear
where
none so deaf as will not hear,
what any
mind-body-spirit
has to
say regarding its concerns
for our
being fed the poetry
of
whatever it may take to gull us
into
giving way to word power worthy
of
Machiavelli
Wherever
contemporary dogma
wears its
glad rags, a silvery tongue
ensuring
innuendo hits its mark,
we need
to beware winks and smiles
on the
face of tigers who'd see us
in hell
rather than miss the chance
take our
place whenever opportunity
making a
play
Trust
human instinct to win the day,
get the
better of rhetoric, rip its finery
into
shreds and let them lie
for
life's caretakers to sweep and bin,
stronger,
kinder companions
to word power
looking on, resolving
not to
let pretty language have its way
with us
again
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2001; 2019
[Note: An
earlier version of this poem first appeared under the title 'In a Word' in an
anthology, In the Dreams of Angels, Triumph House [Forward
Press] 2001 and subsequently in my first collection Love and Human
Remains, Assembly Books, 2000; it has been substantially revised.]
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