What are these words ?

What are these words
           if not flesh of my mind
words woven
           into the flesh of a poem
organic utterances predicated 
           on carbon and water
fed from the earth
           fed from the sun
my years of growth
           of words accumulated
fed from the words of others
           and in other languages

What are these words
           if not word memories
words of memory
           memory of myself
and of others
           woven words
or dissipated
           blown in the wind

Words of joy and pain
           of innocence and guilt
words of love
           that I wished
would one day
           win her heart
and thus create
           a singular body
of shared words
           love at its heart

John Lyons

Revised from an earlier post