He liked words and images. “Blue” was one of his favorite words. He liked the feeling it made on his lips and tongue when he said it. Words have physical feeling, not just meaning, he remembered thinking when he was young. He liked other words, such as “distant, ”“woodsmoke, ” “highway, ” “ancient, ” “passage, ” “voyageur, ” and“India” for how they sounded, how they tasted, and what they conjured up in his mind. He kept lists of words he liked posted in his room.
