I’m staring at the sky and asking myself its color—not blue, not white, not gray, but a pale mix of all three. NPR is on in the background with more hashing over of the Jeremiah Wright brouhaha. This seems like an Oedipal struggle, doesn’t it?
Last night I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR when Alan Cheuese, novelist, professor, and a regular book reviewer for NPR described five new volumes of poetry in honor of National Poetry Month. The story can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89993088
A year or so ago I wrote several columns on writers creating a word list. I was out walking with a friend of mine and confessed I needed an idea for a column and she suggested that I write about a word list. A friend of hers, Lise Goett, a poet, had sent her several words lists she uses in her work. (Lise’s poem Conversion can be found at http://www.poets.org)
So I also started a word list and I try to add to it regularly. It’s simply a Word document where I capture words, placing them under appropriate letters of the alphabet. When I was editing my book Between the Lines, I noticed that I used dazzle, simmer, and whisper too often. Since I try to respect “word territory” that is, try not to repeat words too often or place the same word too close to its twin, this has become a fun practice of scavenging words from what I read and hear. I especially like to find words that are fresh and muscular. But lately, I haven’t kept up on this habit, so am rededicating myself to the task. And in the past few months I’ve talked to several of my clients and students about using a more energetic vocabulary since their writing was flat because their words choices seemed uninspired.
The newest words for my list are: Bulletproof, buzz kill, benediction, partisan, purposeful, squander, impasse, saddle up, moxie, befuddled, pratfall, mine field, heretical, unfrock, furor, deride, outlaw, moonstruck, unhinged, infamous, man love, improbable, tactics, obliterate, fray, soured, unvarnished, mewling, lovesick, slush, predicate, do-over, de facto, chortling, dissect, gasbag, scofflaw, minstrel, disavow, handmaiden, chivalrous, demented, ouster, rapturous, flagging, fuhgetaboutit, hapless, discreet, moiled, obliterate, bitey, fug, spunky, amiable, brawling, Bible-thumping…..
Try it, it’s fun.
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