"When I talk about wordplay, I'm talking about studying a word from top to bottom, and inside out, considering every aspect of the word: What it looks like, sounds like, feels like. What it does, how it's used, etc. The idea is to bring all of your senses into the act. The poem you create may end up being complex and sophisticated, or very simple."
Second is the Five for Friday challenge periodically set by Michelle, which is an exercise in minimalism, a ditty of five words only (although I note that many poets endow theirs with expository titles, a practice which I wholly condone).
So--for Nikki's challenge I do not choose the word "bell" or "lemon" (done that one!), "blanket," "leaf" or "sun," as I might usually. Instead the news lately takes me to "bullet" and I'm a little afraid of it, but here's my Draftless Luck* effort. The title is both expository and five words long, if you allow me a hyphenated word, so that's my Five for Friday, too.
Thank you, Michelle; thank you, Nikki; and thank you, Poetry Friday people, for reading the raw and unpolished with interest and respect. We do each other a great favor in that.
May I also point you to this quote from George Eliot and this recording by Elvis Costello?
*With apologies to Erica Jong, this refers to my time-challenged technique of writing a poem right now, once, with the revision allowed by one hour, publishing it on the blog as though it were finished--and hoping for the best.
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