I once found a $100 bill half frozen into the snow on a random stretch of sidewalk in a not-so-great neighborhood. It’s only now occurring to me that it was literally the coolest thing I’ve ever found because it was encased in ice and snow. I acknowledge it’s not so “cool” in the colloquial sense of the word.
What’s your favorite word?
“Sword” is “words” with a simple swap where the word leapfrogs its ass, and yet they are unrhymable with each other. That’s a word with some sort of voodoo magic.
“Facetious.” But I only use it so much because I am it so much.
No, but it sounds like fun — starts with a “GRR” and rhymes with “fudge.”
EPIPHANIES.
But, if you think about it, writing is miraculous. In the scheme of gifts that nature grants, it is way out beyond left field. Encoding ideas and images in simple characters in a way that can evoke emotional or cognitive responses in readers is kind of a superpower. (As is reading.)
“Nazi” and other terms used to hyperbolize the villainy of those who are, at most, moderately villainous. It allows people to dismiss – rather than debate – beliefs with which they are in disagreement, while – simultaneously – it diminishes understanding of the extremes of horror the world has known.
Brighter than fireflies upon the Uji River
Are your words in the dark, Beloved.
After choosing one's scope of thought,
Turn the words and note their order.
Embrace the hot ones, feel their burn;
Knock on lines and hear their timbre.
Use the branches to shake the leaves,
And waves can be traced to their source.
Make the hidden come visible;
Make the difficult seem simple.
A tiger's transformation startles --
Birds take flight on sight of dragons.
Sometimes words nest into each other;
Sometimes, jaggedly, they won't mesh.
With a clear, contemplative mind
Hordes filter through to easy speech.
Heaven and Earth contained within:
All things flow from the brush with ease.
Starting timidly with dry mouth,
Ending with a wandering brush.
Meaning is borne by a stout trunk,
Language hangs like leaf and fruit.
Make words and intended meaning match
As moods show clearly on a face.
When happiness comes, laugh & smile,
And with sorrow let loose a sigh.
At times words flow spontaneously;
At times one bites one's brush, musing.
The Original in Simplified Chinese:
然后选义按部，考辞就班。
抱暑者咸叩， 怀响者毕弹。
或因枝以振叶，或沿波而讨源。
或本隐以之显，或求易而得难。
或虎变而兽扰，或龙见而鸟澜。
或妥帖而易施，或岨峿而不安。
罄澄心以凝思，眇众虑而为言。
笼天地于形内，挫万物于笔端。
始踯躅于燥吻，终流离失所于濡翰。
理扶质以立干，文垂条而结繁。
信情貌之不差，故每变而在颜。
思涉乐其必笑，方言哀而已叹。
或操觚以率尔，或含毫而邈然。
ALIVE!
Close your eyes and listen with care.
Turn all your attention inside.
Let your soul ride the Eight Borders
At a galloping stride.
Inner space brightens, becomes more
Compact, as one views the expanse.
Words pour forth to cleanse the soul,
As the Six Arts lend a fragrance.
Float, swim, and dive in the abyss,
Heedful for words as it all soaks in...
Sometimes the right word must be hooked,
And hauled up where it can be spoken.
But, other times, words are like birds,
That fly themselves out of the clouds,
To be downed by one swift arrow --
Quite willingly freed of their shrouds.
Mine for lines lost ages ago --
Rhymes unsung for ten centuries.
Thank tight buds for the sweet flowers
That they - soon enough - will be.
See past and present concurrently,
At once, touch mountain and sea.
The Original in Simplified Chinese:
其始也，皆收视反听，耽思傍讯，精骛八极，心游万仞。
其致也，情曈曨而弥鲜，物昭晣而互进。
倾群言之沥液，漱六艺之芳润。
浮天渊以安流，濯下泉而潜浸。
于是沈辞怫悦，若游鱼衔钩，而出重渊之深；
浮藻联翩，若翰鸟缨缴，而坠曾云之峻。
收百世之阙文，采千载之遗韵。
谢朝华于已披，启夕秀于未振。
观古今于须臾，抚四海于一瞬。
Tiger Riding for Beginners 