Knowing but not caring about the flaws in the script. Feeling gripped by the crowd. Laughing out loud at the corn, the actor winking, looking forlorn, mugging while seeming sad. And I, one of the crowd, watching myself being glad. Poetry can serve as a time-out from today’s frenetic existence and be a balm for the soul. In a collection of poems, stories, and song lyrics penned over a lifetime, Paul Selbst shares expressive insight into his journey through a myriad of diverse experiences. From youthful passion and exuberance to mature reflection and insight, Selbst offers poems, song lyrics, and stories in verse that reflect on wisdom, joy, love, friendship, loss, and life itself. Within his diverse selection chosen from a larger body of work, Selbst explores the deeper thoughts, musings, and implications surrounding his observations and experiences, addresses the high, low, and searching spirit, reflects on both young and old love, and much more. Word Songs is a collection of poems, stories, and songs that provides a doorway to fresh insights and understandings as well as comfort for anyone desiring to explore their own thoughts, feelings, and pleasures in life