patron saint of children

if Wittgenstein is right,
words form thin skin
across deep water
and one must dive
to get at stories,
while Valéry beleives
one cannot grasp (the meaning of)
a single word

but
I
think
words
are bouncing balls,
black against white walls,
are sounds that fly
from side to side
and slide like wine into a glass,
splashing chance encounters
up the sides of other words
that mix and fall,
but if not this,
a word becomes a house
contained within a hall
of notes that lead to other doors
that tremble with B flat whenever opened
while its windows measure middle C
across the arched refrain of E F G D E
til meaning fades
across
a
wall
of
song
that
bricks
the
beat
of
any
word
it
flings
into
the
next

"...for all those who trust in the creativity of children;
and for all those who know the liberating value of the word.
"Every possible use of words should be made available
to every single person" - this seems to me to be a
good motto with a democratic sound. Not because everyone
should be an artist but because no one should be a slave."
(Gianni Rodari)

"Every poetic work interupts the usual condition,
the daily routine of life - similar to what dreams do
- in order to reinvigorate us, to keep the very meaning
of life itself awake in us." (Novalis, 1798)