Saturday, March 17, 2007

Poetry Thursday: Defined

From Poetry Thursday:
Look up a bunch of words in the dictionary. Look at the entries only, not the definitions. Don’t even peek at the parts of speech. What you’re after is some groovy, weird word that you don’t know the meaning of but that you like for whatever reason. You might want to make a list of several words. For your poem, select the word you like most and write a poem that defines it. Not like a real definition, which you couldn't do anyway because you don’t know what the word means. It can be a wacky definition, a way-out-there definition, an over-the-top definition, even a definition that contradicts itself.

Okay, easier said than done for "little-miss-I-must-read-the definition". So I had my husband give me a list of words from The Official Scrabble Dictionary. The two words that I like best were "ferula" and "brumby". I decided to use "ferula". After I was finished with the poem I looked up the words. I really wish I would have also used "brumby" or worked it into the poem but now knowing the meaning, I felt it would be totally cheating.

Ferula in the Distance

A ferula in the distance
Fog settles on the river
A furtive glance and
Foraging begins

Fog settles on the river
Ribbon like
Foraging begins
In the quiet moment of dawn

Ribbon like
Water sprites crisscross
In the quiet moment of dawn
Spirits bade farewell

Water sprites crisscross
A furtive glance and
Spirits bade farewell
A ferula in the distance

3 comments:

Julie said...

You are brave to tackle this one, and you came up with the perfect solution. I, too, would not be able to resist reading the definition so opted out this week. But having your husband do the dirty digging for you was brilliant. I like the poem you wrote using your word (which I did not know and had to look up). Brumby could have fit quite nicely into the foggy scene (I remember brumby from The Man From Snowy River).

Crafty Green Poet said...

this is lovely, very atmospheric...

writerwoman said...

This poem makes me think of Ireland. Very fitting for this weekend. Lovely use of an unknown word. Makes me wonder what the real definition is.