Me — A Pysmatic Logomaniac

A while back, Lisa (from Grandma Briefs), recommended that I ask Santa for the book The Gilded Tongue.  Being the impetuous person that I am, I couldn’t wait for him to deliver it on Christmas Eve.  So, I played Santa to myself and ordered it from Amazon.  (Was that naughty?  Or, was it nice?  Methinks it was nice.)

I found a copy for only one penny.  One measly cent!  Amazing!  How could I resist it?  (Of course shipping and handling was $4.95 . . .)

It came yesterday and I absolutely love, love, love it.  I love the soft, suede cover.  I love the curlicue designs on the cover and the pages.  I love the absolutely wonderful words (especially one that so adeptly describes me: grimalkin: an old and usually cantankerous or otherwise unpleasant woman).

Thank you, Lisa, for telling me about this fabulous book.  As I read it (I’m using here the present tense of the verb ‘read’ not the past tense ‘read’. . . . don’t you hate confusing words like this one?), it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Why, you may ask.  Let me count the ways.  (Did you catch that reference to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love poem that she wrote to dear ol’ Bob when he was wooing her?)  My deepest apologizes in advance to Lizzie.

Oh Gilded Tongue
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My fingers can reach,
When feeling thy purple suede cover
And engraved lettering so golden.
My insomniac ways love thee
To the level of every night’s
Most quiet need, to read
by moon and small flashlight.
I love thee freely, I love thee purely,
And with logomaniac passion I give thee Praise
For gilding my tongue so sweetly.
I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life
(well . . . maybe not ALL of it . . .) –and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better when you’re read.

Lest you worry yourself silly over the words in my title that I so happily learned from this book, here are their definitions.

Pysmatic [piz-MAT-ik]: always asking questions or inquiring. (That’s me, an inquiring mind.)

Logomaniac [LAHG-uh-MAY-nee-ak]:  a person obsessed with words. (I’m not sure I would say I’m ‘obsessed’ with words.  Enamored, maybe, but not obsessed . . .)