The Language of Life

&quot;Poets live the lives all of us live&quot; says Bill Moyers &quot;with one big difference. They have the power--the power of the word--to create a world of thoughts and emotions other can share. We only have to learn to listen.&quot;<br><br><br><br>In a series of fascinating conversations with thirty-four American poets <i>The Language Of Life</i> celebrates language in its &quot;most exalted wrenching delighted and concentrated form&quot; and its unique power to re-create the human experience: falling in love facing death leaving home playing basketball losing faith finding God. Listening to Linda McCarriston's award-winning poems about a child trapped in a violent home or to Jimmy Santiago Baca explaining how words changed his life in prison or to David Mura describing his Japanese American grandfather's experience in relocation camps or to Sekou Sundiata stitching the magic of his childhood church in Harlem to the African tradition of storytelling or to Gary Snyder invoking the natural wonder of mountains and rivers or to Adrienne Rich calling for honesty in human relations all testify to the necessity and clarity of the poet's voice and all give hope that from such a wide variety of racial ethnic and religious threads we might yet weave a new American fabric.<br><br><br><br>&quot;'Listen' said the storytellers of old 'listen and you shall <i>hear</i>'&quot; explains Bill Moyers. <i>The Language Of Life</i> is a joyous life-affirming invitation to listen learn and experience the exhilarating power of the spoken word.