The Lost Meaning

(for the lost author of thirteeners)

People, including cynics and the much aggrieved,
Grieve with frustration when they encounter a strange sign,
A peculiar tongue everyone but them understands.
Scholars only grieve when they encounter such a thing
No one understands. Or they exult and get started.
Con artists and insecure mystics who start new faiths
Embrace with their whole being the opportunity.
Poets of a certain kind can recognize the signs
That the language in which fellow poets have composed
Is about to be or needs to be wholly estranged.
I knew an artist once, one who loved calligraphy
And drew always in pen and ink, who had discovered
An inscrutable system of figures in relief.