Concerning the reason “history”
historia in Koine
meant “finding out”

or

“narrative”
from which we get our word:
Story.

I read Mallard today:

Rhythm of breadth
&
Richness
&
again Breadth,
like a powerful life-pulsation,
the phenomenon of language articulates
the history of a culture.

From where I’m standing,
as a histor,
History’s narrative—story told from bias and perspective,
changing the language as it goes,
because the words change
because the narrative changes
depending on the teller and the time and
what kind of tellers the signs of the times
point toward
as guiding lights.

So when “banal” means worn-out,
and we remember that the people,
the oppressed working class under
monarchy, were banned from hunting
forced to work those banal grain mills,
we know that the word
means something similar
but “niggard” can’t be used anymore because
we associate the sound with
“nigger,” though the former comes from
nigon in M.E. and the latter from a hickified
negre or negro meaning Black in
French and Spanish
respectively.

So yes, the grammar changes because
the narrative changes and with the narrative,
(since a narrative),
with the story-language,
history.

Which is why I stick to my guns,
even now,
to say that poets—
language creators—
change
history,
that they themselves create
it.

And also why science
neither tests nor observes nor hypothesizes
anything
from ancient times.

}{

[For newcomers to this series]

Once upon a time, I read that the perfect age for writing quality poetry is twenty-three.  Apparently most of T.S. Elliot’s stuff came out then, the rest of his work being supposedly non-poetic. This resulted in 46 poems written at 23.

These poems came out exponentially faster and faster before my 24^th birthday on April 30^th – and I had to write in genres spanning from epic ballads to limericks to get 46 in on time. I guess that means, for better or worse, that’s the best poetry I’ll ever write. Sad day.

Who was I kidding?

Milton was blind and old—oooooold—when he publishedParadise Regained. Emily Dickenson was dead when her stuff came out. My favorite stuff from T.S. Elliot came out after his conversion. So yeah, old age is good for poetry too. Look at Burns and Berry.

(Side note: the name “Berry Burns” sounds like a shady car salesman).

Will I keep up this twice-my-age regimen every few years? Who knows, but this year, here’s to 50 poems at 25 to be written exponentially faster until I turn 26 on April Thirtyish. I do it this the second time around as a way to say: “Here’s to living life well before it’s too late.”