“Now there’s a word to lift your hat to…” – Emily Dickinson
When my third grade teacher, Mrs. Broadhurst, showed me a thesaurus for the first time, I was thrilled. I started peppering book reports with words like assuage and recondite. Which word was the right one? Which would say just the thing I needed it to say? I used to stare at a leaf or a wall as the day faded and ask myself, what color is it now? And moments later – now? What pigments would I mix to get it to look like that? What word says what color that is? And when darkness took away all color, there were sounds – the rustle of sheets, a gurgle deep in the belly of the house. A distant car outside, someone awake going where, why, at ten thirty, eleven thirty, twelve thirty at night? There were words somewhere to say what was happening at any moment any place in the world. Continue reading words to lift your hat to…
the saltwater twin 