meditation cannot be caged in the wordless. It transcends both the wordless and the word-ful. When I share an intimate conversation with someone, I am using words and yet I am able to be in a meditative state where I am fully present to what is happening. When I am writing, I am using lots of words and yet some of my most profound meditations came down while writing. Philosophers called some of their best thinking as meditations (jean-jacques rousseau, Rene Descartes, Marcus Aurelius) and this is no coincidence. Deep thinking is meditation.
Meditation is a practice of consciousness and Consciousness transcends many mental states. Wherever it goes (thinking, writing, counting breath, talking to someone, doing art, reading), meditation is possible.
To say that meditation happens “only” when one sits down to breath is belittling its power.