Day: February 3, 2016

When my voice trembles  

When words no longer work

wonder

wish

want

When words won’t come

compensate

contrive

When my voice breaks

snaps

sunders

strains

When I want to talk

touch

tenderly

towards

But you are not able

about

abandoned

absent

You are no longer

listening

live

longing

When I need to find a meaning

In the shape

form

structure

But I ‘m stranded

Stuck

Sucked under

Swallowed

Then I reach out to you

I want your touch

tenderness

tranquillity

temerity

Sometimes words don’t seem enough

endless

empty

emotive

ejaculatory

Yet words can console

conjure

quilt

charm

captivate

cover.

Stretch out your hand

across the emptiness

and touch me with your fingers

friendship

faithfulness

forgiveness

frailty

fever

touch my heart with words

and I will hope

expect

await

be grateful

grave

garbed in joy

When words don’t feel enough

When all we want is touch

Or to see

sigh

sob

sing

Words can be shaped

changed

contorted

controlled

challenged

Words are all we have

To make us love

To make us live

To make us alive

To make us sing

To make us stand up

To console,words may be

Enough

In our mind shall give us grace.

The aching heart,now a cliche

Conveys what I desire to say

A painful void.an emptiness

My heart beats with this   stern duress.

 

A gentle touch or glancc may be

Tactful as a mother’s knee.

A child  held close but stifled not

Will soon outgrow  their baby’s cot.

 

Held visions of a mother’s face

In our mind shall give us grace.

And father  seem  a  sturdy tree

Enabling mother just to be.

 

O touch me with your tender hand

Whilst I cross through this dangerous land

Touch me softly,touch me long

Whilst I write for you these songs.

 

Each in turn shall take and give

So in constancy we live.

Faithful,tender,tactful .true

All that’s old is now made new

 

Tact:the limericks

A metaphor about touch gives us tact

A quality it’s best not to lack.

We must learn to give attention,

As a means of prevention

Lest our reply sounds like a nasty attack.

 

Even the most mature  wound their friends

So we sometimes must make our amends

If it occurs every day

Our friend rightly says

Your  words  hurt me and also offend.

 

Yet cunning folk have a false front

And refrain from all comments too blunt

So  their charm can catch us

Till their rages dispatch us

Their  violence was hidden till assault.,

Tact [from Dictionary.com]

9100774_f260

Tact is essential but some folk have more than others

noun
1.

a keen sense of what to say or do to avoid giving offense; skill indealing with difficult or delicate situations.
2.

a keen sense of what is appropriate, tasteful, or aestheticallypleasing; taste; discrimination.
3.

touch or the sense of touch.
Origin of tactExpand
Latin
1150-1200

1150-1200; < Latin tāctus sense of touch, equivalent to tag-, variant stemof tangere to touch + -tus suffix of v. action

Can be confusedExpand
tack, tact, track, tract.
tacks, tax.
SynonymsExpand
1. perception, sensitivity; diplomacy, poise.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2016.
Cite This Source
7950014_f520.jpg
Examples from the Web for tactExpand
Contemporary Examples
Historical Examples

  • He had thetact now to conceal his astonishment at the manner of hisfriend’s speech.

    The Pillar of LightLouis Tracy

  • To be sure the friend must do all this with due delicacy andtact.

    Practical EthicsWilliam DeWitt Hyde

  • But because they have notact, they are never able to agree to the samething at the same time.

    The Curious Book of BirdsAbbie Farwell Brown

  • “It’s too long,” Billy urged, with more practicality thantact.

    Teddy: Her BookAnna Chapin Ray

  • But now the little mechanic exhibits atact that almost seems to prove aknowledge of the principles of its art.

    Butterflies and MothsWilliam S. Furneaux
British Dictionary definitions for tactExpand

tact

/tækt/
noun

1.

a sense of what is fitting and considerate in dealing with others, so asto avoid giving offence or to win good will; discretion
2.

skill or judgment in handling difficult or delicate situations; diplomacy
Derived Forms
tactful, adjective
tactfully, adverb
tactfulness, noun
tactless, adjective
tactlessly, adverb
tactlessness, noun
Word Origin
C17: from Latin tactus a touching, from tangere to touch
Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cite This Source
Word Origin and History for tactExpand
n.

1650s, “sense of touch or feeling” (with an isolated instance from c.1200),from Latin tactus “touch, feeling, handling, sense of touch,” from root oftangere “to touch” (seetangent ). Meaning “sense of “discernment,diplomacy, etc.” first recorded 1804, from a sense that developed inFrench cognate tact.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

Loveliest of tree the cherry now, by A.E.Housman

A. E. Housman (1859–1936).  A Shropshire Lad.  1896.
 photo0904
II. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,         5
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,         10
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.