Before we learned to talk we communicated with our mothers and later the family by gestures,cries and body movements.In fact inside the womb we swam like fish .Then we begin to babble as if we learn the music of our tongue before we learn the individual words.Eventually we get caught in the web of words and assume without thinking that everything important can be expressed this way.However when we are with people we still rely alot on body language and the tones and musicality of the voice itself.A ugly man with a beautiful voice can become very attractive to women.for example.

But later we may come to realise many aspects of life cannot be expressed easily in words.As humans evolved they developed different kinds of language.Poetry and science describe aspects of the world and of the people speaking these languages.One cannotbe reduced to the other..Music is also  a  form which does not use words though in opera it is combined with them.

One , might almost say that with printing and later mass literacy we moved from an oral,bodily centred ,sensuous language to a more abstract less personal way of communication.

However, there are many forms of writing and much more can be expressed this way than most of us know… but when we come to the edge of the world of language .. we realise that the sacred,the ineffable,the holy may be beyond the powers of even the best poets.Yet they can point us there,Music and art may give a more vivid enchantment which we recognise but of which we find it hard to speak.

Words are a net to catch the world but the smallest fish  may drop straight through.

Despite these problems most of us can convey much more by words than we might think.