Serenity… refocus – seek joy – thrive

Or something like that.

The Color of Words IX Wosene Worke Kosrof, b. 1950, Ethiopia 2002

My ability to play with words, to form memorable phrases and such has not matured yet (if it ever will) but I do love the ability of others I come across. Sometimes it may not even be great writing, but whatever it is they’ve written either catches my attention or ignites my imagination, makes me laugh or, in some way, just resonates.

I’d say this one belongs in the “all of the above” category:

“Several years ago a ghostly, glassy-looking man, with a big stomach as taut as a drum, came to a doctor’s office in the city. He said, ‘Doctor, I have come to have you remove a monkey that was put in my belly.’ ”

I don’t know about you, but that would certainly have me wanting to read on.

That is from Miles Corwin’s piece on writer Gabriel García Márquez’s beginnings (and lifelong dabbling in) journalism. The whole article is a great read. (via Sullivan)

Another, in Christine Kenneally’s introduction to “The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language” (which also has a prelude AND a prologue!?) made me laugh, when she’s explaining the difficulty of figuring out when speech began –

“But there are no verbs preserved in amber, no ossified nouns, no prehistoric shrieks forever spread-eagled in the lava that took them by surprise.”

I’m still smiling at the mental image of that prehistoric shriek.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 11:16 am and is filed under wordplay, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.