Pride Rock

I sit upon the edge of the universe

and throw a pebble down

down

and listen for its lonely echo bouncing back around

I sit upon the edge of the world

and I watch the green stretch out before me

the grass sways with each gentle lilting breath

the sun beats down on my pale skin

I sit upon the edge of the cliff

my legs dangle above the black

the breeze catches tendrils of my hair

I curl my fingers around the rock,

brace myself against its pull.

I sit alone on the old rock

dust worrying lines into my sneakers

I tap out a familiar staccato on my ribs

she sits beside me and together we listen

Rage

I am filled with poison

a dripping hollow core

a gushing oozing fountain

a deep-seated sore

I am filled with cyanide

it carves rivets in my bones

chews deep into the tissue

drips acid from my nose

I am filled with arsenic

my muscles dance and twirl

I am filled with pesticide

I slumber like the dead

I am filled with poison

cut me open, pour me out

let me feel no more

amandaonwriting:

100 Beautiful and Ugly Words

by Mark Nichol

One of the many fascinating features of our language is how often words with pleasant associations are also quite pleasing on the tongue and even to the eye, and how many words, by contrast, acoustically and visually corroborate their disagreeable nature — look no further than the heading for this post.
Enrich the poetry of your prose by applying words that provide precise connotation while also evoking emotional responses

Beautiful Words

Amorphous: indefinite, shapeless

Beguile: deceive

Caprice: impulse

Cascade: steep waterfall

Cashmere: fine, delicate wool

Chrysalis: protective covering

Cinnamon: an aromatic spice; its soft brown color

Coalesce: unite, or fuse

Crepuscular: dim, or twilit

Crystalline: clear, or sparkling

Desultory: half-hearted, meandering

Diaphanous: gauzy

Dulcet: sweet

Ebullient: enthusiastic

Effervescent: bubbly

Elision: omission

Enchanted: charmed

Encompass: surround

Enrapture: delighted

Ephemeral: fleeting

Epiphany: revelation

Epitome: embodiment of the ideal

Ethereal: celestial, unworldly, immaterial

Etiquette: proper conduct

Evanescent: fleeting

Evocative: suggestive

Exuberant: abundant, unrestrained, outsize

Felicity: happiness, pleasantness

Filament: thread, strand

Halcyon: care-free

Idyllic: contentedly pleasing

Incorporeal: without form

Incandescent: glowing, radiant, brilliant, zealous

Ineffable: indescribable, unspeakable

Inexorable: relentless

Insouciance: nonchalance

Iridescent: luster

Languid: slow, listless

Lassitude: fatigue

Lilt: cheerful or buoyant song or movement

Lithe: flexible, graceful

Lullaby: soothing song

Luminescence: dim chemical or organic light

Mellifluous: smooth, sweet

Mist: cloudy moisture, or similar literal or virtual obstacle

Murmur: soothing sound

Myriad: great number

Nebulous: indistinct

Opulent: ostentatious

Penumbra: shade, shroud, fringe

Plethora: abundance

Quiescent: peaceful

Quintessential: most purely representative or typical

Radiant: glowing

Redolent: aromatic, evocative

Resonant: echoing, evocative

Resplendent: shining

Rhapsodic: intensely emotional

Sapphire: rich, deep bluish purple

Scintilla: trace

Serendipitous: chance

Serene: peaceful

Somnolent: drowsy, sleep inducing

Sonorous: loud, impressive, imposing

Spherical: ball-like, globular

Sublime: exalted, transcendent

Succulent: juicy, tasty, rich

Suffuse: flushed, full

Susurration: whispering

Symphony: harmonious assemblage

Talisman: charm, magical device

Tessellated: checkered in pattern

Tranquility: peacefulness

Vestige: trace

Zenith: highest point

Ugly Words

Cacophony: confused noise

Cataclysm: flood, catastrophe, upheaval

Chafe: irritate, abrade

Coarse: common, crude, rough, harsh

Cynical: distrustful, self-interested

Decrepit: worn-out, run-down

Disgust: aversion, distaste

Grimace: expression of disgust or pain

Grotesque: distorted, bizarre

Harangue: rant

Hirsute: hairy

Hoarse: harsh, grating

Leech: parasite,

Maladroit: clumsy

Mediocre: ordinary, of low quality

Obstreperous: noisy, unruly

Rancid: offensive, smelly

Repugnant: distasteful

Repulsive: disgusting

Shriek: sharp, screeching sound

Shrill: high-pitched sound

Shun: avoid, ostracize

Slaughter: butcher, carnage

Unctuous: smug, ingratiating

Visceral: crude, anatomically graphic

Notice how often attractive words present themselves to define other beautiful ones, and note also how many of them are interrelated, and what kind of sensations, impressions, and emotions they have in common. Also, try enunciating beautiful words as if they were ugly, or vice versa. Are their sounds suggestive of their quality, or does their meaning wholly determine their effect on us?

From Writers Write

bubonickitten:

do you ever find stuff you wrote years ago and cringe inwardly in shame and embarrassment at how badly written it is and how much of a fucking dork you were and how shortsighted and silly you were and how much you didn’t know

and you just whisper to your past self, *why do you have to be this*

and just want to smack your younger self with a stop sign

and then you stop and realize you’ll probably be doing the same thing in five years

The particles sliding up your nose tickle

“Like rats” you say as you encase your feet in sea foam

Slide your hands into the blue traps

Nibble

The mischief swarms toward you

Tongues lashing, stomachs dragging across the floor

Nibble

Splayed starfish, they tremble over their own four paws

Clamber carelessly up your pant legs

Inhale furiously at your shoes

Chew on your hair

Tug—- on your white labels

Daisy will you stop that right now or so help me…

Nibblenibblenibblenibble

Rip goes the black plastic bag lining

Sonorous crash of sweeping utensils cascading onto the floor

Shuddering yelp of the caught youngster

Hold it!

Now you stop that!

Shh

And movement ceases

Appendages sweep across the floor expectantly

Slyly onto higher ground you climb

King of The Hill you declare as you stare down at the sea of tiny faces

Scratch Scratch Scratchscratch Scratch Scratch

Piranhas in the Amazon never looked hungrier

Gnashing their teeth on unwary prey

Cannibal Kings never drooled harder over that last juicy leg

Scratch

Young grasshopper, endless patience

Bend in the wind like a reed

Endless waterfalls tumble before you

Patience

Scratch

One by one

Little

They succumb to counting sheep

One

Whine

That pied piper never did such wondrous a job

At putting eight puppies

Yawn

sparrow30:

Staring at a blank word document.

Maybe if I hope hard enough words will start to magically appear. Thats possible right?

Little Things

I am fond of the lilt of your speech pattern, and how it changes just for me. I am fond of the look you give me just after we kiss, or how you say the sweetest things out of the blue. I am fond of the awkward texts I know not whether to send you— how much unknown there is yet to explore. I am fond of the green of your eyes and the lone dimple that resides on your cheek. I am especially fond of the lazy scroll your fingers trail up my body or the reciprocal nature of your happiness.

But most of all I am fond of you, and the way I make you smile.

No shelter in its whispering touch, no hole to inhale

Death knits your mouth and weaves your voice shut.

The leviathan confronts, immovable, the fragile human

Unfocused as they traverse the current of animation.

Like a mother the monument nags you,

Asks you if you remember what sleeps in the warped coffins,

What vital suffocation slips along your veins

Flexes its rings around your neck until you focus.

Pause for a minute on the precipice, on the threshold of movement

And remark the form before you

That which your eyes glaze over and your flesh sidles past

What does it say about your humanity

That you are more willing to step to the side

Than rub against the grain,

To throw off what enfolds you and buries you into the dark.

“A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.”

—Helen Dunmore (via writersrelief)