Adam’s Task

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ... GEN. 2:20

Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted

Glurd; thou, whitestap, lurching through

The high-grown brush; thou, pliant-footed,

Implex; thou, awagabu.

Every burrower, each flier

Came for the name he had to give:

Gay, first work, ever to be prior,

Not yet sunk to primitive.

Thou, verdle; thou, McFleery’s pomma;

Thou; thou; thou—three types of grawl;

Thou, flisket; thou, kabasch; thou, comma-

Eared mashawk; thou, all; thou, all.

Were, in a fire of becoming,

Laboring to be burned away,

Then work, half-measuring, half-humming,

Would be as serious as play.

Thou, pambler; thou, rivarn; thou, greater

Wherret, and thou, lesser one;

Thou, sproal; thou, zant; thou, lily-eater.

Naming’s over. Day is done.

Source: Selected Poetry (1993)