Words’ Snag

I was once asked to put my nature into single word,

Describe my life in just a couple letters.

I probably said I’m kind, or pretty, or I’m smart.

I probably proved myself a desperate, thoughtless adolescent.  

How can a word speak of a person’s heart?

How can a soul have any meaning or intention?

Don’t care if there are words as many as the beating hearts

Or if before me poets mastered naming feelings.

Never before have I denied the strength of speeches,

Myself I turn to words from inside out.

But I’m not made of them; I’m not a sentence, I’m a human being.

My wrongs can’t quickly be, on paper, written right.

Photo credits from the film:  “Poem Field #2” (1971) by Stan Vanderbeek.