Words

I remember how the meaning of words began to change.  Valerie- fromV for Vendetta

            Perhaps I was more acutely aware of a vocabulary of time and place because I had just spent the weekend immersed in words. A random occurrence of synchronous events tends to be one of my secret amusements. What I am thinking of here relates to the realization, upon walking into a record store the other day, that the song that had begun precisely as I crossed the threshold was the title song of the film I had watched the night before. It was a film I had not seen in a long time, and unlike some others, it had stood its ground through the passage. I listened some more as I walked through the store, thinking that perhaps it was just a minor coincidence. But as the last notes of Yellow Submarine faded and Only a Northern Song cranked up, it became obvious that the entire soundtrack to that animated classic was on for the duration, and of course for my private, coincidental entertainment.

            In sharing this bit of serendipity with the person at the front counter I found that what I had thought to be a bit of clever banter between the cartoon characters representing the actual members of the Fab Four in the film was neither scripted nor spoken by any of the Beatles, and that the only real Beatle sighting in Yellow Submarine was the live action bit at the end, with all four of the mop tops inviting audience members to join in song while exiting the theatre. While slightly disappointing, this bit of trivia did not diminish the power of the film for me. The power of the images and the words that went with them still stood tall in my mind. The strongest image that remained was the visual of a giant blue glove flying through the air over Pepperland, sent on a mission by the Blue Meanies to stamp out all that was good. The most powerful graphic event in this regard was when Glovie encountered the monumental, three dimensional four letter word in the landscape- KNOW. While it had crashed and smashed through a number of other such word structures along the way leaving total destruction in its path, the glove in this case chose to only take out the K and the W, leaving a much greater sense of loss by virtue of what remained.

            As luck or the fates would have it, I was watching the news not long after my submarine ride when a glove of another type, actually a Mitt, appeared behind a mic at a public appearance somewhere, apparently to officially declare his intent to run for the office of President of these United States. As we all no, I mean know, since the meaning of words (like freedom and democracy) has changed, it is no longer necessary for presidents, or those aspiring to the job, to tell the truth. In the clip I saw, the Mitt wasted no time in pounding the K and the W off what we needed to know about how the current president is actively trying to make life and the economy worse for you and me. Unlike another president who made an art form out of lying at the time that the Beatles were breaking up, the Mitt looked pained in his efforts to twist and mangle the truth. If he really wants to occupy the highest office in this land, the Mitt is going to have to learn to take the gloves off and truly lie like a Dick- you know, Nixon and Cheney.

            On the other hand, we could maybe seek out, look for, aspire to something better. As was stated back at the beginning of this ramble, I spent last weekend immersed in words and surrounded by those who were using them well. At the second Vashon Island Poetry Fest, what became readily apparent from the very start at the Young Poet’s Center Stage through Sam Hamill’s festival closing reading on Memorial Day at Ober Park, was that here and here and here were places where words actually meant something. The only thing that approached a deception was Tom Pruiksma’s Poet’s Magic, where sleight of hand and spoken word met to reveal, rather than conceal, a truth about poetry. After wallowing in the rut dug by a seemingly endless barrage of mainstream media fist pounding, that looked and sounded pretty good from here.