WORD UP.

Atop a coffee table.

Most often, when I think of poetry, the above is the first phrase that comes to mind. I don't know why - I don't recall ever writing it or reading it, so as far as I know it just appeared in my mind one day. Probably in "creative writing" class back in high school... Shudder. I do not wish to think of those redundant classes where personification of animals was the end-all, be-all of good poetry.

Something or other about implosive or explosive consonants (or something) probably brought the phrase about, but I never used it in one of my "poems" - I am not a poet. But really, when I say "atop a coffee table" out loud, it sounds pleasant to me. I like it a lot.

As I peruse Poetry Critical, a site I stumbled upon in my early days on the internets, I am often struck by poems where the author chose some nice, maybe unusual words, and they really flow together. (In case you're interested, my favorite poems on the site are here and here.)

I think the huge variety of words and their origin makes English a really interesting language. I kind of like to read about how words have changed over the years and where they originate. I regularly check various word-of-the-day websites. I just like words, okay? Thus, the real topic (paragraphs later) of this post is not poetry, but words.

But not just any words. Oh no, no no no, not that. Only good words count. Do you think that people who give mere speeches get on in this world? Because they do not, gurlfran. If you want to be well-respected, you've got to give a declamation. Yes, that's a good word.

Just ask Amy March the importance of having a nice vocabillary of words in one's repertoire. She got to go abroad, after all... Which, now that I think of it, seems like a poor example since Jo was the writer (and those obv have superlarge vocabs, am I right?) and she didn't get to go. But you probably didn't need convincing anyway, did you?

As I was saying, a well-chosen word can make or break a sentence. One well-chosen word after another can make you a genius. Just ask Shakespeare.

So, what are your favorite words (or phrases or sentences or paragraphs or pages or poems)? Maybe you write? Show off one of your lilting, lyrical masterpieces in a comment, hm? Does that sound good to you?

Word.