as an odd way to put it, as the poet says,
angling across broad leafy avenues,
being engulfed by the green of a park*
Even when applied to knitting socks or doing cross-word puzzles,
for there's a lot of mental effort exerted in turning
that heel or retrieving a word like creel from your memory bank
if it was ever there in the first place-
And what is leisurely about identifying those wildflowers
that bedeck the side of the road or woodsy trail
while engaged in angling across avenues
or engulfed in that green park?
while dealing with the nagging questions that ensue
from your perusal of Plantnet-
like whoever thought to name that flower
a blue button haze and that grass a Yorkshire mist?
And so begin your travails in the area of etymology
taking you through Middle English, old English,Anglo Saxon and beyond.
And what with all this ruminating and time travelling...
I'd rather call it a"day on"...
And ruminating, if you want to know,
comes from the Latin word ruminatus
coming from rumen meaning gullet
and refers to cows chewing the cud.....
Copyright 2024 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved
* Billy Collins, of course. Sirens in his collection The Rain In Portugal, Picador Poetry
No comments:
Post a Comment