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Article: THE VOCABULARY.(Poem)
- Article from:
- Poetry
- Article date:
- October 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Modern Poetry Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When was the last time something "ensued"?
When was the last time anybody acted
with "alacrity"? was "dilatory"? "dyspeptic"?
This is language disappearing from our breath,
the way "no hieroglyphic document
of the third millennium B.C. has come down to us,"
at least from the Hittites, whose medium
was wood. Of course the atoms of that wood
are with us yet -- by now, some may be in your hand,
your brain. And yet they don't reform, to say
I cannot master the torment of my heart.(*)
-- Or do they? Haven't you wanted to turn and claim
this very thing to someone, but you halted, voiceless
and clumsy and shamed, as if your tongue ...