Idle Musing No. 1
30 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
“the right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” -samuel clemens (alias: mark twain)
ephemeral. i hate that word. and i love that word.
it is, most likely, my favorite word in the english language. soft, it rolls off the tongue and always reminds me of spiderwebs and misty beaches in the morning.
but it’s meaning, how it’s meaning is cruel and cold to us poets. webster’s has only this to say about it: “ephemeral (ih-fem-er-uhl), adjective. means: lasting a very short time.“
and that is that. how can such a beautiful collection of letters have such an utterly desolate meaning? what kind of world is this when there are ephemeral things?
it breaks my heart that nothing lasts forever. and this word only reminds me of that fact. it is simply a painful word to know. and a painful word to understand.
