The Quest for the Perfect Word by Joshua T. Baylis

The perfect word is an elusive thing:

The name of notions deep, unspoken, true,

Expressed, made known, embodied in a string

Of letters bringing shape and form in view.

Indwelt with weight of meaning, wholly due,

This word with meter rhythmic’ly will chime,

Will soundly sit where it is rightful to

And resonate with sense and beat and rhyme.

That perfect word, in pure and fairest ease,

Is fleeting as the white stag, sought until

In passing gleam ‘tis glimpsed through gloomy trees,

So swift of foot and nimble in its skill.

In rustling leaves its rumour brings a thrill,

A distant melody’s soft haunting strand;

I turn, give chase—it yet escapes me still,

As phantom vapour through my closing hand.

Unreachable in vaulted heights afar,

Amid the dark a splendour to behold,

The perfect word is lofty as a star,

Its sharp and silver beam so keen and cold.

Unsearchable, ‘tis as a cave of gold

At mountains’ roots unfathomed, deep below,

A chamber rich with treasures manifold,

In shadowed secrecy I cannot know.

Its far-off glimmer glows, beyond, behind

And into this before-dawn twilit gloam,

Where, unachieved, my searching quest to find

The perfect word has yet to reach its home.

Joshua T. Baylis is based in Oxfordshire, UK, and writes about the expansive power of nature upon the soul and about the symbolism of the seasons. He also loves complex and imaginatively rich stories, and wishes his bookshelves were limitlessly big. He works in research support and has previously worked as a church-based ministry trainee.