Self Portrait with W
One might claim a double victory, or after the Roman Empire’s fall, a reclamation
from the slurred “b” and its subsequent reduction.
Survival of the rarely heard, of the occipital’s impulse.
The oak’s crook performs a similar function.
Shielding myself from adjuration, I contemplate the second family
root, weighted in weapons, in Woden, in wood.
Not rejection, but acceptance in avoidance.
The Japanese homophone, daburu, bears a negative connotation.
Original language was thought to be based on a natural
relation between objects and things.
Baudelaire’s alphabet existed without “W,” as does the Italian.
The recovery of lost perfection is no longer our aim.
When following another, I often remain silent.
As in two, as in answer, as in reluctance, reticence.
We share halves – one light, one shadowed, but both of water.
Overlapped or barely touching, still we complete.
* * *
“Self-Portrait with W” originally appeared in the Silver Birch Press Self-Portrait series, and was reprinted in my chapbook, The Circumference of Other, included in Ides, a one-volume collection of fifteen chapbooks published by Silver Birch Press and available on Amazon.com.
That is one good W
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks very much!
LikeLiked by 1 person
sWeet! An ode to W! Brilliant. In Spanish isn’t it “doble v?” Or am I remembering it incorrectly?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think your memory is working just fine. But what do I know?
LikeLiked by 1 person
More than I!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hah! Fooled another one… 🙂
LikeLike
without wending west away from the wise-bush, well done W-ing words into a verse. that was a terrible use of W’s by myself if i do say so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! My attempts at replying to you in kind all sounded as if written by Elmer Fudd…
LikeLike
You are NOT hafu or daburu… You are both an transitive and transitive verb with a little abstract noun-ness thrown in, You are turipuru (triple): fully American, with a sabi heart, and a mushotoku spirit (process, not form). Not Okaji-kun or Okaji-san.
You are fully Okaji-sama and Learned Okaji-hakase (博士)!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops! That should read “transitive and IN-transitive verb…” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny, but that’s how I read it. The eye corrects…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Daniel. You are increasing my meager Japanese vocabulary. Am grateful for that, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Japanese is economical and very nuanced. I am eternally grateful for having been born at all to have studied and spoken this amazing language. It is as close to a divine language as one can get, and to learn even a single word of it is to finally know Beauty; to know the eight million spirits that animate the trees, rocks, wheat, wine, and the waves…です ね! To whisper a single ‘sumimasen’ is to whisper a secret!
日本… 永遠に…
LikeLike
Wonderful Wordplay on W! Great photo too. How cleverly you write intertwining fact and poetry… 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Krys. I found the photo on morguefile.com. The facts, well, they come from everywhere. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
…in which case a skilfully crafted concise collaboration! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes!
LikeLike
“…weighted in weapons, in Woden, in wood…” I sigh as I read… 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Another part of my mixed heritage…
LikeLike