Rob Riemen

Every poet knows that the gift of the gods is not fire but language. __an dwells poetically on this earth,_ Hölderin wrote. Language is the essence of being human. We can think, thanks to language, for thought exists only by the grace of words. Our experiences and emotions are molded by language. It is language that allows us to name and know the world. We ourselves are known by language, through prayer, confession, poetry. Language gives us a world that reaches beyond the reality of the moment, to a past (there was_) and a future (there shall be_). It is through language that eternity has a space and that the dead continue to speak: __efunctus adhuc loquitur_ (Hebrews 11:4). Thanks to language, there is meaning, there is truth.