Show Me Your List!!!

Hi all,

If you haven’t read exercise 5 already here is the first task of the assignment:

“Begin by brainstorming a list of words you care about, including both words you use often and words you never use but would like to. You don’t need a long list, but you might need to write a long list to get to a shorter one, if that makes sense: you want words that you’re really motivated to work with, rather than words that happened to occur to you.”

I think it would be really cool to see the lists of words that each of us have come up with.  Maybe someone will notice something about your list of words that you never noticed before.  Here’s mine:

• sanguine
• vixen
• opulent
• orange
• tangerine
• body
• empty
• inside
• bloom
• flow
• sprout
• open
• crack
• spill
• relinquish
• curl
• chrysanthemum

I certainly think there are more words I could add, but this is what I have for now.  I think it’s important to think about what types of sources can be found in our lists of words.  For me personally, I think my list shows themes pertaining to growth.

What do you notice in your list of words?  Paste  below!

Ari

2 Replies to “Show Me Your List!!!”

  1. I’m laughing because it seems that my list is comprised of my addiction to seltzer and my preoccupation with reading the (unfortunate) news:

    seltzer
    woman
    news
    fuck
    lovely
    lady
    nasty
    think
    question
    ridiculous

    my list is still growing, but I find that that words I wish to incorporate are words that I can never grasp an understanding of!! Some examples are “postmodernism” “apropos” and “vicarious”. I find it funny how these words surfaced in my mind, because they are concepts or spellings that I just can’t master. For example, I never know whether it’s “vicarious” or “bicarious” so I never attempt to say the word. Bi means 2 and vicarious usually pertains to 2 people so I always get tripped up. Anyway. This list leads me to think that I’m always trying to grow my vocab to sound smarter or something. Obviously a thirst for knowledge is super healthy and inspiring but I worry that I want to acquire these words for the illusion of intelligence.

    As for your list I see the growth theme, but almost all of your words have very sprightly connotations. Like, I’m seeing a lot of bursting citrus and sprouting verbs.

  2. Hi Ari!

    Thanks for sharing your list. I love how I could see this list of words out of context, and if I had to ascribe a poet from our class to them it would easily be you. It’s cool that we can do that! These words are all very sensual, bodily, colorful, and delicate–and those are definitely four words I would use to describe your writing as a whole.

    Here’s my list!

    -light
    -barred
    -memory
    -stuck
    -pricked
    -vein
    -throat
    -swallow
    -drip
    -stretch
    -ache
    -harmonize
    -his
    -tachycardia
    -skin/pores
    -plum
    -tooth/teeth
    -static
    -chalky
    -mephitic
    -uproot
    -dark
    -white

    My list doesn’t reveal too much about my poetry to me, but it does make me aware of why these specific words crop up so often. What do you guys think?

    Thanks for this post!

    -Juliet

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