Lexical Bagatelle

[Reilley]

I am deeply in love with language, does it show? ;D

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Lexical Bagatelle

As a child, I would ring doorbells
And run off
Leaving tracks of potential
Reciting poetry
Delighted in my ability
To mystify.

School meant diverse
Conundrums to solve
Things to prove
Different ways to
Be an enigma
And I mastered every one.

I failed as a bartender
Because I would not
Learn the meaning
Of water down the wine.
It was an Arcanum of spirits.

Gardening was never meant to be
I argued with the weeds
And snakes
That choked my flower friends
To death
Damn them.
The flowers, not the weeds.

But words
Have never failed me
Never ignored me
Never misunderstood me
Like I have
Done to them.

I unravel colluquies
Dance with etymon,
Peer inside semanteme
To find the moist pearl within.

And then I throw them away.

Let there be more
To eternity
Than day, night, repeat
Into infinity.

[Brigid Briton]

Hi Reilley,

This is a very clever "ode to words". I'm really kind of captivated by the idea of throwing words away. As poets, especially new poets, we tend to be in love with every single word we write down. Maturity as a poet only comes when we realize that, just because we wrote them down, our words are not cast in stone. The throwing away process is even more important than the writing down process.

I enjoyed this.



Brigid

P.S. I doubt that there is anyone on this forum who isn't in love with words!

[Reilley]

I am hosting an open mic this weekend, and this is going to be my opening poem. 

[Daniel Mark Extrom]

Hi Reilley,

I'm going to have to keep a dictionary handy when I read your pieces.  Arcanum; etymon; semanteme. New to me.

Love the sentiment.

"But words
Have never failed me
Never ignored me
Never misunderstood me
Like I have
Done to them."

Nice!

Dan

[saore]

I really like this one.  Words brought me back from insanity.

Sergio

[Brigid Briton]

Hi Reilley,

This should be a great way to kick off an open mic event, provided you don't baffle you audience in the process with some of your more, shall we say, esoteric words.

I love the phrase "tracks of potential" that the little masked poetry Robin Hood left behind.

Any chance the open mic session might appear on YouTube?

[Reilley]

As it turned out I read last, batting clean up, but I did read this poem, and was well received. Had a great time, lots of strongly worded poems, very diverse group, plus some old friends, and even family turned out! 

[Brigid Briton]

Well, since you're waxing baseballish, I hope you hit a grand slam!

[Cory Raymond]

Hi Reilley, I enjoyed this. We poets just can't help it, can we? In the beginning was The Word and, no doubt, in the end, there will be a last word, but aren't all the other words in the middle so much fun!

Cory