Speaking in Tongues

PROEM

All language is a masquerade.
But how we crave its bright feathers.

In every weather we proclaim it:
a loose change in the pocket,

a rouge upon the cheeks,
a lesson the mind learns how to keep.

It's a simple need
a simple drummer repeats

and repeats to the brain,
when all the circuitry's in flames,

when all the cells clasp hands
electrifyingly and sing.

 

"Maurya Simon is a poet of enchantment and awe, rapture and rage, those "twin exultation" of the spirit, twin fulfillments, "the fire above and the fire below," our darkening middle realm. Speaking in Tongues is a spellbinding meditation on origins, a true imaginative quest for the invisible. It is an alphabet of pure music." – Edward Hirsch