Once more

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.”

-Shakespeare, Henry V, Act III, 1598.

Once more quickly into the breach

We go before the king’s speech

Syntax and rhythm tied by threads

Mind imagination is left in heads

Spew all but nonsensical rhymes

Words to fall before the sands of time

When once lost language’s truest spirit

And spoken none recognize that hears it

Man loses stories’ communication

To dots, dashes and abbreviation

Oh where would I that love true test

Is not only written but spoken best

For my ears still long to hear

Promises that ease my heart from fear

Read in a script penned by you

And not my folly that I pursue

Once more I beseech to thy own lips

And like eager greyhounds in the slip

Speak; speak to me of beauty fair

Upon your lance my banner wear

Or leviathans that patrol the sea

Words to thrill and frighten me

The stars and space are but a stroke

Of leaden scribe of which you spoke

Combine them all in prose and ink

Give me things upon which to think

Practice please your written verse

And lode not diagramming upon yonder hearse

For Charon awaits a dangling phrase

And slang that’s passé in fewest days

Teachers teach, until all has finally been said

And then wall up words until English is dead

Once more my pleas stand in the breach

Once more, once more, please teachers teach

© NP 8/11