When I first met my husband, Jim, he was hard at work on his dream--earning a PhD in English at the University at Notre Dame so he could teach literature. To make ends meet, he also taught legal writing in the ND Law School. I worked as an editor in the ND Publications Office. We crossed paths a couple times on campus, but for me it was not love at first sight. Then one day while we were talking, he found out I loved poetry. A couple days later, he gave me a copy of the poem below, which he eventually published. How could I resist "soothing daily language, / spleenic and fleshy, that sweats and breathes. / . . . giggles like children feigning sleep"?
It was love at first poem. Jim has written many poems since, but this is still one of my favorites.
Do you have favorite stories or poems where words act as aphrodisiacs?
The Retreat
(after teaching legal writing)
I retreat to verse, verses without any
smack of plaintiff, client, or defendant.
I’ve spoken my fill of memos, issues, briefs,
complaints, jurisprudent circumlocutions.
“. . . aforementioned decedent, that Pother
woman, found by defendant deceased beneath
said truck on or about that point in time,
in invitium, without consent or contract. . . .”
So I to verse, soothing daily language,
spleenic and fleshy, that sweats and breathes.
It touches, tints, babbles like common folk,
whispers, giggles like children feigning sleep.
Juridic jargon tries the tongue which forms it
as it meanders along obfuscating.
“. . . supply and furnish us this day and forward,
baked grain foodstuffs, hereinafter called ‘bread’ . . . .”
Caveat emptor; caveat lector.
I retreat to my verse, bland words, blank verse,
and hew of coarser, meaner stuff, some lines.
James A. Zarzana
It was love at first poem. Jim has written many poems since, but this is still one of my favorites.
Do you have favorite stories or poems where words act as aphrodisiacs?
The Retreat
(after teaching legal writing)
I retreat to verse, verses without any
smack of plaintiff, client, or defendant.
I’ve spoken my fill of memos, issues, briefs,
complaints, jurisprudent circumlocutions.
“. . . aforementioned decedent, that Pother
woman, found by defendant deceased beneath
said truck on or about that point in time,
in invitium, without consent or contract. . . .”
So I to verse, soothing daily language,
spleenic and fleshy, that sweats and breathes.
It touches, tints, babbles like common folk,
whispers, giggles like children feigning sleep.
Juridic jargon tries the tongue which forms it
as it meanders along obfuscating.
“. . . supply and furnish us this day and forward,
baked grain foodstuffs, hereinafter called ‘bread’ . . . .”
Caveat emptor; caveat lector.
I retreat to my verse, bland words, blank verse,
and hew of coarser, meaner stuff, some lines.
James A. Zarzana
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