Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and audio books. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
Words are important and the choice of one word instead of another word makes a big difference. We are lucky to have so many great words that we have borrowed from other languages plus our own to use for nuance and beautiful images.
The sound of the word makes a difference, too. The pacing of a sentence is different depending on the length of the words. Word choices matter; not just in poetry, but in prose, too. What is clunky is hard to read. Words can be zingers that make us sit up and take notice or smooth that make us mellow. Words can be edgy or dramatic.
Words remind of us things we have known. One word can bring up all kinds of memories and images. Poems are meant to be read out loud because the words are a kind of music.
The Storm
By Theodore Roethke
1 Against the stone breakwater,
Only an ominous lapping,
While the wind whines overhead,
Coming down from the mountain,
Whistling between the arbors, the winding terraces;
A thin whine of wires, a rattling and flapping of leaves,
And the small street-lamp swinging and slamming against
the lamp pole.
Where have the people gone?
There is one light on the mountain.
2
Along the sea-wall, a steady sloshing of the swell,
The waves not yet high, but even,
Coming closer and closer upon each other;
A fine fume of rain driving in from the sea,
Riddling the sand, like a wide spray of buckshot,
The wind from the sea and the wind from the mountain contending, Flicking the foam from the whitecaps straight upward into the darkness.
A time to go home!—
The whole poem is here:
www.poemhunter.com/...
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Overheard on a Saltmarsh
by Harold Munro
Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?
……...
Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?
……….
Give them me. No.
Give them me. Give them me.
No. I will howl all night in the reeds, lie in the mud and howl for them.
……….
Goblin, why do you love them so?
………….
They are better than stars or water, better than voices of winds that sing, better than any man's fair daughter, your green glass beads on a silver ring.
………….
Hush, I stole them out of the moon.
……….
Give me your beads, I desire them. No.
I will howl in a deep lagoon
for your green glass beads, I love them so. Give them me. Give them. No.
A Memory
cfk
She is turning four
and today is her party
her frock is a lavender sundress
and her blond hair is in long pigtails.
spring has barely arrived
but the backyard grass is green
and there are purple violet clusters
surrounded by rocks.
grandpa pushes the swing while
the dark clouds hang overhead
her mom says it is not going to rain
which puzzles her a lot as she can feel some drops.
…….…..
"Come," I say, "Come under the big table umbrella,"
and she climbs up on my lap while I wrap warm arms
around her cold ones and we watch the drips grow stronger…
At last, the rain is official and the umbrella is too small for the crowd…
we grab the gifts
wrapped in yellow and striped paper and stuffed in colorful bags
someone grabs the new pink bike leaning against the tree
……………..….
It has become an indoor party and the little one stands
at the front glass door looking out and pouting
"Indoors is fun, we say," and hotdogs are handed out
she sits happy between her mother's knees
……….………
There are four small children and while one opens cards and gifts
the other three play with the purple balloon
that circles the room and goes back and forth a hundred times
batted by small hands
accompanied by wide eyes and laughter
the newest baby is handed around without complaint
while last year's baby walks around dressed in pink
……………
The cake and the song are done
the rain has passed and out comes the sun
"too late," her dad says, "and the grass is too damp to play."
the folding chairs are wiped down and repacked
kisses are handed around and put like stickers on fat cheeks...
Some of my favorite words:
Lavender
Kaleidoscope
Resilient
Splendor
Autumn
Terrestrial
Resonance
Carousel
Paladin
Serenity
Turquoise
Mythology
Serendipity
Sinister
There are lists of course:
100 Most beautiful words in the English language
deshoda.com/...
My favorites from this list:
Eloquence
Leisure
Surreptitious
Talisman
Weird and wonderful words
www.oxforddictionaries.com/...
My favorites:
Alcazar
Blatherskite
Cerulean
Chanticleer
Ensorcell
Mouse potato (I had not heard this one…re: computers)
Triskelion (a Celtic symbol consisting of three radiating legs or curved lines, such as the emblem of the Isle of Man)
Archaic words
www.oxforddictionaries.com/...
My favorites:
Apothecary
Asunder
Brimstone
Grimalkin
Orison
Palfrey
Perchance
Poltroon
Rapscallion
Zounds
A List of Funny Words to Help You Writing Funnier Stories
www.writersdigest.com/...
My favorites:
Bamboozled
Buccaneer
Gobsmacked
Persnickety
……………….
Kudos to all of you who make up new words that fit wonderfully in these hard times.
What are your favorite words?
…………….
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! "Everyone Who Loves You Dies," He Said. Predictably?
By mettle fatigue
www.dailykos.com/...
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All Times are EDT, EST
Readers & Book Lovers Series
Schedule Day Time EST/EDT Series Editor(s)
Sunday 6:00 PM Young Reader's Pavilion The Book Bear
(last Sun of the month) 7:30 PM LGBT Literature Chrislove
Monday 8:00 PM Fantasy: The Language of the Night DrLori
Tuesday 5:00 PM Indigo Kalliope: Poems from the Left Kit RMP, ruleoflaw
8:00 PM Contemporary Fiction Views bookgirl
Wednesday 7:30 AM WAYR? Chitown Kev
8:00 PM Bookflurries Bookchat cfk
Thursday 2:00 PM Self-Publishing 101 akadjian
8:00 PM Write On! SensibleShoes
(once a month) 2:00 PM Monthly Bookpost AdmiralNaismith
Friday 8:00 PM Books Go Boom! Brecht
Saturday 9:00 AM You Can't Read That!
Paul's Book Reviews pwoodford
9:00 PM Books So Bad They're Good Ellid
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Note: Dkos Book Club: The Brothers Karamazov, books 6-7
By pico
www.dailykos.com/...