Words, Ideas, and Imagination

  Although words are commonly and repeatedly used to express ideas, I wonder which precedes the other. A radio program I heard over a year ago about this established residence in my mind and occasionally becomes loosened, stirring the enigma like sediment from the bottom of moving water or objects swirled into debris by the wind. I can't recall whether mention was made of the opening sentence in the Holy Bible, but its mystical profundity endures: "In the beginning there was the word and the word was God."  It's a fascinating proposition to say the least, and reaffirms my belief that words should be used as precisely and carefully as possible.

  If words activate ideas, then what about the imagination? Is imagination a gestation of ideas?  If so, my visualization imbues spores diffused in a medium or spermatozoa racing in their trajectory, a whisking not conducive to the formulation of words.  In this frame, are words even necessary?
 Perhaps asking a musician or following lines and brush strokes on a canvas can answer that.