From the Sound of It

Last week at Big Tent Deb suggested that we listen for a few words we liked and then think about building a poem around those words. The key concept was to listen to the sound.

After jotting down a few phrases that caught my attention, I realized how I don’t give sound enough care. I tend to be an abstract thinker, which is not very good for writing poetry. I listen to sounds, like blaring music, rushing wind, barking dogs, and children laughing, but when it comes to words, I often gloss over the way a particular word sounds. I read a lot, which is usually how interesting words present themselves to me, and I have long lists of lexicons from the page.

But my sound list is very short, and I did not write a poem with the words included. Maybe someday… . My list, generated at Wordle, is pasted below. I invite you to add to it in the comments section. Have you heard any interesting words or phrases lately?

Big_Tent_Sound_Words

If you want more words to inspire a poem, check out Big Tent again this week. They have a Wordle prompt up.

Published by Christine

Christine Swint’s poems have appeared in Calyx, Birmingham Poetry Review, Slant, a Journal of Poetry, Tampa Review, Heron Tree, Ekphrasis, and others. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets, and she has won first place prizes from the Georgia Poetry Society and Agnes Scott College. Her first collection, Swimming This, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press. She teaches first-year composition at a metro-Atlanta university and writes about poetry, art, hiking, and yoga at Balanced on the Edge, https://balancedonedge.blog Twitter @christine_swint

6 thoughts on “From the Sound of It”

  1. deb says:
    Reply

    Hey, thanks for the shout out! And I love these words. [Can I pilfer them for a future series of Wordles? 🙂 (I need an emoticon that shows a silly-toothy grin. Maybe :-E ?)]

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  2. naquillity says:
    Reply

    Hey Christine~ i found these words worthy of mention: glissades and faronades. hope they ‘ade’ you in your interesting word list. i read them in Shantaram. hope all is well. have a great day.

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  4. christine says:
    Reply

    Deb, you crack me up. I just wish I could come up with a poem in time for the prompts. I’ve been working on a sonnet series about my relationship with my husband.

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  5. Julie says:
    Reply

    Hi, Christine. This is a great prompt. I love your list. “Pastoral” is a nice sounding word. It just slides off the tongue.

    This is silly, but I’ve always loved the sound of the word “pituitary.” I think it’s the little spit sound in the middle of the word…TOO. Of course, accents tend to affect the way we read words, and I tend to place a lot of emphasis on that syllable when I say it.

    I’d love to read your sonnets when you’re ready to show them!

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