The shape of words.

I'm not talking about typography, (although I'm a big fan of the Jan Middendorp and dutch type form). More so, I'm speaking about how a jumble of words on a page can convey a thought, a story, a communication. I marvel at their power and potential meaning. I love them (there, I said it).

While they may start out looking ugly, sounding too sharp, too obtuse, and feeling like they do not belong together, the moulding and shaping of them is to some, an art form. I often imagine a block of copy as a blob of clay sitting on a sculptor's pedestal. They're waiting to be shaped, breathed life into, while patiently being cut and pasted into a more meaningful story. Some of us gently. Others like butchers, while we ferociously hack at them until they barely resemble their former selves. Considering all this, they're very forgiving.

F.R.David sang 'words don't come easy' in 1982. Fortunately for him, he proved himself wrong; he stayed No.1 for the whole of November and December that year. Words are all-powerful. They have moved governments. Defined movements. Saved lives. And while I surround myself with the best authors my greedy eyes can find, they feed my family, my brain, and my life.