Friend Excelsior Wood Motto York State Ik Sel See Er Noun

[From a trademark. From Latin, literally higher, from excelsus, high.]

"In a glint of needle light, of grass seeds, dew flecks, a friend is throwing her voice

While far inside a grainy heaven a butcher's apron ripples its dried blood in the wind.

The bark strippings, excelsior, the panicles of the garden. In the midst of summer a friend cuts greens and places them in a bowl as if they were fronds.

A friend is a vinegar - and now, pearl-shaped, in clusters, faces among her face,

As globes rise on the lawn, each above a root of recriminations." - Garden solstice; The Antioch Review; Jun 1, 1996.

The word excelsior is also the motto of the New York state. It is also the title of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Of course, here they are not exhorting us to take inspiration from wood shavings. Rather these refer to the Latin sense of the word.