Kerry Says ~ Let's Visit the Family

Here, I am not suggesting we crack open our ancient family albums (although you are welcome to if that sounds like an interesting place to start) but encouraging us to pay a visit to to a Word Family.

Source

According to Oxford Learner Dictionaries, a word family has two definitions:

1) a group of related words that are formed from the same word a word family consisting of “help,” “helper,” and “helpful”

2) a group of words with particular features in common “Cat” and “hat” are in the same word family.

To these, I want to add another related idea of the word family, such as one finds in a Thesaurus, namely synonyms and antonyms ( Those more or less fortunate cousins and prodigal siblings).

Take, for example, the word BELIEF.
A list of synonyms abounds: credence, credit, assurance, faith, trust, presumption, conviction and so on.
The Thesaurus then offers its antonym, DOUBT, with a range of related words and phrases: miscreance, infidelity, skepticism, suspicion, question, demur, dispute.

It is my belief that all writing begins (and often ends) with a mastery of words. Let us see this as an opportunity to explore the words and the way they work in our poems today, whether you choose the families of words that can be used as rhymes, derivatives of words which can be played with in many ways or a keyword, along with its synonyms and antonyms. The theme of the poem itself is of your own choosing, as is the length, form and style of your piece.