A Poem for a Thursday #246

Today’s poem is written by Evan Jones. I believe this is the Evan Jones who was an Australian poet, editor, teacher and critic. He just died last year. His poetry is described as being “distinguished by clarity of voice, command of metre, rhyme, and rhythm and an imposing versatility in the handling of poetic forms.

Language talk to me, language
tell me what I know
after forty years—
language, will you show
the way out of the labyrinth
to me, myopic, slow
and singular as when 
I fell in love with you
twenty odd years ago?

Language talk to me, language
while I listen for 
the wheezing, snuffling clumping
of the Minotaur:
now from your endless store
recruit a devotee who
on this illegible shore
lost, without a clue,
turns as ever to you.

Language talk to me, language
teach me what to say
in the face of disaster,
in the height of hope,
as things fall away.
Mother-tongue, lingua franca,
all that anyone knows,
bring me, kindly bring me
to a perfect close.

Language, Talk to Me
Evan Jones