Prompt for 7/19/13: I found the word “languish” on the sidewalk a few weeks ago. As a poet, I’m always on the hunt for that special word, the one that will trigger some kind of response in poetry. I could hardly believe my luck in finding “languish.” It made me remember the “one-word prompt,” a writing exercise that I use often. Find a word that moves you in some way. Now look it up in the dictionary and write down all of its meanings. “Languish” has these: 1. Be neglected or deprived; 2. Become less successful; 3. Pine. Aha! I see that “pine,” both a verb and a noun, has possibilities. I start to wonder about the etymology of “pine,” a word that signifies a tree and an emotional/physical state of suffering. Look for a word that moves you in some way. Look up its various meanings, in both a dictionary and thesaurus. Look it up in a foreign language dictionary and see how it’s defined in another language. Ponder its associations. Write.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 15:57:30 +0000
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