Get Listed ~ Elephants Dance in Fancy Pants

ManicDDaily, a/k/a, Karin Gustafson here visiting With Real Toads from a semi-blog break.

"Elephants Dance in Fancy Pants" 

© Karin Gustafson

When Kerry asked me to come up with a Real Toads word list, I must confess to resistance.  On the one hand, lists of words compiled by another person CAN get a poet out of the worn knees and stretched-out seats of typical usages. On the other, the words can feel arbitrary, forcing the poet into expressions that just don’t jive with their passions. But Kerry is too great a person and poet for me to refuse her anything!  So, for the last few weeks, I have been thinking (make that, worrying) about the concept of both poetic lists and words.

"Toad Bestowed" 

© Karin Gustafson

For what it’s worth -- and to buy a few more minutes before actually setting forth a list-- here are some of those thoughts: 

Lists: I do, in fact, often make word lists when I write a poem, particularly a formal poem such as a sonnet or villanelle.  These lists, jotted done on the spot, are rhymes with the end words of my first couple of lines.  When I make these lists, I try not even to think about the context of the poem, but just to brainstorm rhymes, to come up with all possibilities.  This allows me to come up with combinations that would never have occurred to me if I’d stayed in the box of what I originally thought the poem was about.  It’s a way, for me, not just to find more interesting rhymes but also to open up the poem. 

Now, words!  Obviously, they are the building blocks, the meat (or, if you are vegetarian like me, the grain) of poetry!  To my mind, when the words used are overly vague, abstract (naming emotions rather than conveying them), commonplace, they can feel like mush.  They can turn a poem into a kind of pablum, something that’s swallowed without the slightest chew, but also without very definite taste. (Maybe just a syrupy sweetness.)

On the other hand, a poem jammed with shiny vocabulary can make me feel as if my mental mouth is being stuffed with marbles.  This type of poem can feel like a choking hazard, as well as a danger to my teeth.  (By shiny vocabulary, I mean very long words, excessively latinate words, compound words, words that feel unnecessarily arcane. It’s perfectly wonderful to use arcane words--especially if they are aimed towards an  otherwise inexpressible meaning, but overuse of the arcane can feel oddly superficial and grandiose, i.e. a little goes a long way.)  

I’m not saying here that word usage should be safe--but simply that it should be particular--with words chosen (ideally) with a certain precision, because they mean what you say, because they are visually vivid or active, because they are musical (or possibly anti-musical); because they are referential, multi-layered, full of echoes, or maybe because they are startlingly original.  Fun.  I guess the idea is you want words that have the energy and particular limbs to carry the freight of your poem.  Weak words just can’t carry that much. 

All of which makes me very nervous at the idea of compiling a list of them! 

So, here goes.  Below are some words that I’ve chosen (i) simply because they seemed vivid or particularly multipurpose, or (ii) because they are used in poems (I will not mention here) that stick to my memory (and so I thought of them as memorable poetic words).  The challenge is to use at least three words - please feel free to use any form of the word or even a homonym.  

"Cat ON a Hat" 

© Karin Gustafson

An ancillary challenge is to also use rhymes with at least one or more of the words below.  So that your poem would include a few of the words below AND words that rhyme with those words.  (This is only for those of you who like rhyming, and want to try a more formal poem.  I have tried to choose words that lend themselves to rhyming.  If you want to cheat you can use the rhymes of a word from this list, and OTHER words here.) 

Finally, please do not feel compelled, for the sake of the exercise, to use any word that does not speak to you.  

braise

shuck 

dapple
hair

basin

tomorrow

inventory

malingers

platter

wrist

tang

vegetable   

pace

rind

skillet 

habit

sleeve

Good luck!