to write prose or verse using 3 or more
words from a list of a dozen.
Submitted to Poets & Storytellers United
July 29, 2020
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The girl sat ready to put pen to paper. Which words are really mine, she wondered, and which are collected in the coiling pathways of my brain, gleaned from some book I might have read years ago or yesterday, edited unaware and added to my storehouse of words poetic or prose. Which are phrases I heard somewhere that captivated me, and clung to my brain like stalactites in a cavern. She once saw a deserted roadside chapel and wrote a lovely poem of the thoughts it fostered, only to find virtually the same thoughts were fostered by some other deserted chapel which captivated another poet 100 years earlier whose poem was startling in its similarity to her own. Are all the words of the world, she thought, stored in some giant swirling word-blender and spit out into the stratosphere landing indiscriminately in the fertile minds of would-be poets. If so, she thought, I‘ll just sit here and wait for a morning wordfall, a word burst, or even a word tsunami. I will fashion them with proper grammar and punctuation, she thought, with a new pace and rhythm uniquely my own. The girl sighed. Smiling, she started to write.
I loved this, Beverly. Poetry and prose are mysterious indeed- in that the same story is repeated...but only with the unique flavour of the writer. I loved the beginning as well...haunting.
ReplyDeleteThis is yummy and true. All the words have been written, spoken, read... But the writer always has the power to add their spice to new writings and shape meaning like a sculpture.
ReplyDeletethe dictionary is like the sculptors marble. chip away all the ones that don't work
DeleteIndeed.
Delete"Are all the words of the world, she thought, stored in some giant swirling word-blender and spit out into the stratosphere landing indiscriminately in the fertile minds of would-be poets."
ReplyDeleteI have asked myself that selfsame question
Nice poem. Thanks for dropping by to read mine
Much💖love
This is incredibly deep and heartfelt, Beverly!💝
ReplyDeleteShe can invent a word any time she desires or feel its need. And if she feels like adding it to the on-line Urban Dictionary it may become widely accepted. It is not the Oxford but is much respected for slang. Unless they have taken me off I am on a board of some sorts. But also there is quite a bit of vulgar words and definitions so I wouldn't advise anymore if asked except for my concern.
ReplyDelete..
A very accurate picture of the writing process. The secret sauce is inside us.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish that word tsunamis were real! Alas, I have to search for just the right one--and often fail.
ReplyDeleteLike most trades an Author/Poets crafts words into poetry and stories of his own, telling of love and loss, of the world and beyond.
ReplyDeleteYes, Beverly. The words are there to be chosen - that is a thought from Bob Dylan, a master of poetic storytelling.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sending me to Dylan, Joel. I just read with great interest 101 Dylan quotes! I didn't find the one about words, however. Can you give me that as he said it?
DeleteI love the idea of the words swirling in the blender and spit out into the stratosphere, to land indiscriminately in poets' minds!
ReplyDeleteA giant swirling word-blender ~~~ of course. Nice write, Ms. Bev.
ReplyDeleteAn enjoyable piece, Bev, which had me thinking too, about the words ‘collected in the coiling pathways of my brain'. We recycle words and phrases every day but, as poets, we also recreate them. I love the simile ‘clung to my brain like stalactites in a cavern’ and the image evoked by your giant swirling word-blender - the picture I have is a bit Heath Robinson!. I’m waiting for my ‘morning wordfall’ too.
ReplyDeleteHelen Keller wrote a book and she was accused of plagiarism and was so afraid that anything she'd ever write again might be something she had read previously and stored away, she never wrote another! I think that is tragic.
ReplyDeleteBut she did...That needs to be another blog post. I still owe someone a Liberal Post and Keller certainly qualifies as a topic for one.
ReplyDelete