Friday Poem: "Centuries of Lexicographers"

       Centuries of Lexicographers

Centuries of lexicographers
Burrowers compulsives
Eavesdroppers drudges
Root-diggers foragers of
Utterance and script

Unacknowledged invisible
Ordinary perhaps in other ways
But you have scaled the anatomy
Of language   its shy nerves
Frail capillaries obscure tissues

So that this morning
In search of meaning or suggestion
I may rummage in my OED
Discovering through opportunity
Intentions bursting from my words

Lexicographers Johnsonian or mad
What harrowing tillage without you
Absent your ardor for order and nuance
The kindling of your midwife’s vigil
This appanage of the gossamer of art

9/2-9/7/00, 10/9/05
Copyright 2000, 2005 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.