When I began to dig
this is what I found: from the Latin, vertere,
to turn, from the Lithuanian, versti, to overturn,
from the Sanskrit, vartate, he turns. Vers, fers:
turning, turning and bending, having planted
a length of beans or corn, having reached a furrow’s
end. Like a plowman, versing, this breaking up
of sod, this fashioning into tidy rows, helping the singers
recall their lines. When the need to memorize
disappeared, verse remained like the typewriter keys
spelling QWERTY, slowing the typist down. When I began
to dig, I found turn, turn back, be turned, convert, transform,
be changed. From wert: to wind, its cognate weard
(turned toward). When I began to dig I unearthed
wyrd (destiny, fate), found what befalls one, reached
down, pulled up Turn! Turn! Turn! A Pete Seeger tune,
a psalm. From Slovenia to Wales, from…
