By Lynn Hoggard
In language, the Greeks could divide,
and if not conquer, control.
In love they compartmentalized
sexual eros,
from brotherly, philia,
first love, philautia,
from long-term love, pragma,
playful from family, ludus, storge,
or the wide-ranging spiritual, agape
Clumsy, bumbling English
grabs every which way— Love =
wildly erotic and yet my good friend,
maybe too my precious child and my heavenly being
in a roiling, messy oneness,
one word embraces lovers, friends, family, play, heaven,
continually creating shades of mingled meaning
from a single source—
So dear to me, my taproot tongue,
my always-darling baby,
my long-term first love,
my lover, my friend,
my games to play,
my stumbling prayer-way to God
Lynn Hoggard has published eight books and more than 100 poems in peer-reviewed journals in the U.S. Her 2018 collection, Bushwhacking Home (TCU Press) won the poetry prize given by Press Women of Texas.
