Meant As A Companion for "The Power In Words"

Wow, so I just read the poem, and I'm now eager to read this essay that goes with it. The power of words is something I've contemplated for several years now but never formed specific ideas about. Maybe your essay will help me focus my thoughts on the subject...Its title certainly drew me in.

I'll start with a few nitpicks that I'll write as I'm reading the essay, but at the end, I'll talk about what I think of it overall.

They also love teasing me about a specific guy in my life, you probably understand how siblings react to your 'crushes' and 'boyfriends'.

The comma in this sentence creates a comma splice, since both clauses could stand alone as a complete sentence. It could be rewritten like this:
"They also love teasing me about a specific guy in my life; you probably understand how siblings..."
Or like this:
"They also love teasing me about a specific guy in my life. You probably understand how siblings..."

I no longer take offence because joining in and making fun of myself makes my life easier, not fighting them and just going with them makes my siblings lay back a little.

Another comma splice. This one could be separated into two sentences, but I think it would be nice like this:
"I no longer take offence, because joining in and making fun of myself makes my life easier, while not fighting them and just going with them makes my siblings lay back a little."
Well, that's a bit of a mouthful. You can choose what you want to do with it.

There are days now that I go for over an hour without speaking, it makes the words I do say have more meaning.

Aaand, I guess the only other nitpick I have is for a third comma splice. Again, this one could be fixed with a semicolon, or by separating it into two sentence. However, it sounds like you want to emphasize the second part of the sentence a little more than the first part. To do that, you would replace the comma with a colon:
"There are days now that I go for over an hour without speaking: it makes the words I do say have more meaning."

Looking at it again, it might flow better if the second clause was written like this:
"it gives more meaning to the words I do say."
Since that's a little less wordy.

Anyway, this is a lovely little commentary about your poem (which was beautiful, by the way). I agree that it's disgusting how much words' meanings have degraded. Even if you read the Bible, you see how much more power words had back then. It was almost a metaphysical, binding power, because people truly meant what they said. I'm pretty guilty of overemphasizing things and thus losing meaning in my words of emphasis, so I'm not above the problem...It's a good idea, however, to be reserved in speaking, and to really consider what you say. I've been seriously hurt by words in the past, and those hurts stuck with me for a long time after. I think a lot of people have this experience, because, while we are degrading the meanings of words, I still feel that they have an intrinsic power. They should be handled with care.

Oh, I also liked your writing style. It was somewhat casual, but not too casual, with some formality mixed in. While I was reading it, I could kind of see myself sitting in a coffee shop with you and listening to you talk about the subject (though I don't know what you look like). Your style is very pleasant.

Thanks for writing this very thought-provoking little piece! I hope it will make me more conscientious about my words from now on...