Verbal Calisthenics
My love for you is more athletic than a verb, Agile as a star The tents of sun absorb. Treading circus tight ropes Of each syllable, The brazen jackanapes Would fracture if he fell. Acrobat of space The daring adjective Plunges for a phrase Describing arcs of love. Nimble as a noun, He catabpults in air; A planetary swoon Could climax his career. But adroit conjunction Eloquently shall Link to his lyric action A periodic goal.
Verbal Calisthenics - meaning Summary
Love as Linguistic Gymnastics
The speaker likens love to a lively linguistic performance, casting verbs, adjectives and nouns as acrobats whose movements show love's energy and risk. Language is presented as physical and theatrical: words tumble, plunge and catapult to capture feeling while a conjunction ultimately binds the motion into a deliberate, periodic completion. The poem stages love as active, performative and held together by grammatical connection rather than static description.
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