Marianne Murphy Zarzana
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Words as Aphrodisiacs -- Love at First Poem

2/14/2011

2 Comments

 
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

2 Comments
Katie Freeman link
2/16/2011 12:57:06 pm

How delicious!

My sweetheart lacks a way with words, but the truisms he manages to utter are wrapped with love. I always know he's trying hard when there are more than just a few syllables involved with whatever he's saying. :)

happy Valentine's day to two sweet, sweet people.

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Marianne Zarzana link
2/16/2011 11:15:36 pm

The language of love is expressed in so many ways, isn't it?

I like how writer Howard Mohr deals with this subject in his book _How to Talk Minnesotan_.

The chapter titled "Lesson 15: Romance and Marriage in Minnesota" is priceless: "Minnesotan is not high on the list of the world's romance languages, but it's not quite as bad as some people make out."

The scenarios of romantic encounters under "Falling Head over Heels in Minnesota" are spot-on: At the Laundromat; At the Garden Center; At the Hardware Store; In the Parking Lot of a Shopping Mall, Winter; and On the Dock of One of Minnesota's Ten or Fifteen Thousand Lakes.

Highly recommended reading.

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    I love to play with words. To capture moments on the page. To explore the physical and spiritual geography of what I call "fly-over country." I write from imagination, observation and my own experience of wandering in fly-over country--the literal, physical spaces of my life on the Minnesota prairie and the inner territory of the soul. 

    I teach writing at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. I enjoy cooking and traveling with my husband Jim, reading, practicing yoga, playing tennis, biking, hiking and gardening.

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