one word

if only.
i could feel the earth rotate.
sit still, and watch all
imagery
before me
disappear.
the more i learn to love the art form of poetry — the line
breaks, the domination of language — the more i see people
shun at the word.
to me,
one word is worth at least a thousand images.

a poem encourages, if not forces, one to focus on
imagery, theme, and associative relationships, rather
than on chronological causal structures as found in a
novel or longer works of literature. i’m in the business
of (image. and type.) the marriage of the (visual. and
verbal.) the littering of communication. and. distilling
communication. i am a graphic designer. but i always
start with a word. and end with a word. that is my
visual communication. i feel black text on a white page
is the most effective, most high resolution design ever
imagined. poetry is the graphic design of literature. and
graphic design is the poetry of communication. words are
beautiful to me. no one owns the words we use. no one.
and that is most liberating.
it’s time we sit still and read the words. and maybe.
just maybe. we will see an image. a unique, one-of-a-kind
image arranged for only us. and then together, in our
minds, we will all be graphic designers.