Could there be a language
In which poetry is the only way
To speak?

Is there a tongue where metaphor
Drives a cart which a "literal" equine
Can never get ahead of?

Where similies, like water,
Wear away the weary stones
Of words?

What airy thoughts might such a speech support,
Without a foundation of reference to referents?
Could it lift itself by bootstraps, self-sufficient?

Or would it slump into a
Quasi-structureless
Stack of questions?

_{(see "Lexicalization" in the Toki Pona wiki, and here cf Mines of Metaphor (1999-09-28), Writing vs Good Writing (2018-01-21), Speak, Poetry (2018-03-23), ...) - ^z - 2024-12-29}