More Words To Fathom

By Sharon Flitterman-King

Words grow out of words

I fathom that—

  from the Indo-European root

  word pet: To spread

As in “length of two arms

stretched out.”

         .

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes

         .

But wait, there’s more:

the Latin patere to be open

  comes from pet

  As in patent and clear

    and open

to understanding

Or the Latin pandere

  to spread out, in

  expand, the possibilities

of fathom

the word

Related to the beautiful

  petal, from the Greek

  petalon, from pet

    a leaf, whose loveliness

    often I cannot

fathom

Then there’s paella and pan

  also from pet, in the

  Greek patane, or

  “thing spread out”

So let’s eat and drink

  to words—

  as we fathom them

    together

         .

Nothing of him that does fade

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich

  and strange

the fathomless tempest

of words.

--For Claudia

Sharon Flitterman-King, PhD, lives with her husband in Hillsdale, New York. She is the author of "A Secret Star," among other works.

 

 

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