Some summer flowers from the taiga.
This is an exercise that I originally got from "The Practice of Poetry" by Chase & Twitchell but similar exercises exist in other books.
1) Look for words you don't already know in the dictionary, plucking from different letters from the alphabet. If you can use opposing sound pairs (f/v/b/p; t/d, some vowels, that's best)
2) try to get different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives.
3) My modification: write the poem so the reader can guess at what some of the words mean.
My dictionary list was:
Verb: Decompounds, smolder, vivify, unveils, noose
Nouns: Falichon , Makimono, Pyrope, Quadrat, Smew, Smilax, Coontie, newel, taiga
Adjective: Allargando
Poem:
Grin of the Smilax
Vines dropping leaves like Makimono from sleepy hands,
Smilax decompounds its staircases, unveiling newels of tree trunks
In swampy quadrats where coonties plant their falichons
And hummingbirds dash in and out of pyrope-red buds
which vivify heavy moisture smoldering with humus
Panting allargando, botanists gather specimens and long
to dive into cooler waters, like smews fishing in the taiga.
1) Look for words you don't already know in the dictionary, plucking from different letters from the alphabet. If you can use opposing sound pairs (f/v/b/p; t/d, some vowels, that's best)
2) try to get different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives.
3) My modification: write the poem so the reader can guess at what some of the words mean.
My dictionary list was:
Verb: Decompounds, smolder, vivify, unveils, noose
Nouns: Falichon , Makimono, Pyrope, Quadrat, Smew, Smilax, Coontie, newel, taiga
Adjective: Allargando
Poem:
Grin of the Smilax
Vines dropping leaves like Makimono from sleepy hands,
Smilax decompounds its staircases, unveiling newels of tree trunks
In swampy quadrats where coonties plant their falichons
And hummingbirds dash in and out of pyrope-red buds
which vivify heavy moisture smoldering with humus
Panting allargando, botanists gather specimens and long
to dive into cooler waters, like smews fishing in the taiga.