Learning A New Language Poem by Gabrielle Ciarann Roniyah Baer

The last time I accomplished this task,
I was too young to realize it,
that would be why it seemed so easy,
to learn my 'mother tongue'.

But now I'm much older,
so much older I'd not care to say,
And I seem to have won back
a new/ancient tongue,
new to me,
ancient of days in the world.

And like any way of speech,
it carries it's own way of looking at,
it brings it's own way of understanding,
it gives it's own way of, in it's own phrase,
healing the world [tikkun olam].

Now the sounds
string themselves into words for me,
Now the exotic looking letters
carry meaning to me,
Now the poetry and music
of an ancient tongue
are almost mine,
and I can only hold my hands up
in praise, and love,
for this gift of learning
at such a late hour in the day of my life.

next task: Homeric Greek!


(written in January,2000)