see the poem ‘Alfalfa’ published February 11, 2017.
This poem is a trick, a deceit to lure one from the obvious to the obscure. The poem is not about alfalfa. It’s about language. It is not about alfalfa the grass. It is about alfalfa the word. More specifically, the sound the word alfalfa makes.
The poem takes place in the poet’s imagination. He envisions a farmer at home after a long day’s of work in the fields. The poet notices the attention the farmer pays to his hands. They are his tools and must be cleaned and cared for. The poet imagines having a beer with the farmer and watching the news. The newscast is offered in language. The words come from the mouth of the broadcaster and the farmer immediately distills them into meaning.
When the newscast is over the poet wants to know about the farmer’s relationship with words. The poet asks about the word alfalfa. He is curious about the farmer’s appreciation of the word; its origins, its spelling, the sound it makes, the gymnastics of the mouth required to pronounce the word.
For the farmer the word alfalfa is an arrow pointing away from itself toward the object it names; alfalfa. For the poet it could mean anything and still be a pleasure to say. The farmer is briefly willing to consider the sound. He tentatively suggests It could be a trill in a Christmas carol like falala. But he quickly returns from appreciating the word’s sound to his customary utilitarian, naming fodder for his horses and cows.
This poem invites us to consider two ways of experiencing language. The most pragmatic is a communication code, a word standing for a physical or mental thing. For the farmer the word alfalfa falls into this category. The second consideration is the vibrational sensations a word sets loose around itself when it is spoken, the musicality of the word. This attracts the poet’s attention and he wants to know how the farmer feels about alfalfa as a sound event.
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There are other ways we experience language. One is etymology, i.e. the origin of a word and the history of its development. Another is the aura of secondary meanings and references a word carries with it. We will save these for another poem and day.