AT FIRST, a Word.
perceived with auditory sense,
speech crawling, visceral,
through time and space and evidence...
a form of Voice
ancestral to the cosmos,
to the waves that crash
sounds into shores of ears,
ancestral even to the ears,
una Palabra viva 2 (a living word)
burning first
as fire-spirit-being,
thrilling in his hand-made
mysteries
of shape and light
in slanted spheres…
from which planets spun
and platypuses swam
and children ran
through pools of sun,
knew one unheard-of thing
still must be done
and slid, translated
to a tongue of flesh,
of consonants and vowels
made of muscles, veins,
and bowel-movements.
so much is lost in translation.)
miraculous arrival in the flesh
de la Parole 4 (of the word)
long anticipated
this unprecedented
advent of celestial chords,
most missed the inconspicuous
invasion in the body
of das Wort. 5 (the Word)
1 Kazakh: “Word,” pron. swooz
2 Spanish: “the Voice, a Living Word”
3 Russian: “Word,” pron. slova
4 French: “of the Word”
5 German: “the Word,” pron. das vort
6 Arabic: “Word,” pron. Kalima