« get your poem on #23
informal talk about forms: the shakespearean sonnet »

read write prompt #24: jargon

Published by Tom April 23rd, 2008 in Read Write Prompt, Tom.

We live in a world of increasing specialization. Just about every little things has an entire field of knowledge dedicated to it, and each of those little fields has its own vocabulary.

Science uses a whole lot of Latin, psychology uses the word affect in a very strange way, and unless you happen to be a carpenter (or blacksmith) there are a million types of hammers you wouldn’t know the name for. Within poetry we use our own jargon referring to rhyme schemes and forms and tropes and all that.

The problem with all this specialized vocabulary is that the people who don’t know it have no idea what you’re talking about (and this is why most people don’t talk to me about computers) and just nod their heads politely. There is a prompt in here, really.

We’re also in National Poetry Month here in the US (as if any of the read write poem readers would have missed that). I think there is a bit of a tendency to write our poems as if our poems were all in some other world, kinda similar to this one, but distinct. This is not a thing that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it just is.

But this month, I think it would be interesting to root our poems in the worlds we inhabit on a daily basis, and write a poem using the jargon of a specialized area. For the professional poets, we’ll know what you’re talking about, but if we have any structural engineers…. The trick will be to use the vocabulary we deal with every day in generally not very poetic environments and make it meaningful to the readers of our poems, even if they have no idea what DHCP tables or eurocodes are.

~Tom.

8 Responses to “read write prompt #24: jargon”

Feed for this Entry
  1. 1 gkgirl Apr 23rd, 2008 at 6:49 am

    oh…..
    this has really got me fired up.

    great prompt!!

  2. 2 Robin Reagler Apr 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    I think I’ll try it too. Thanks!

  3. 3 jillypoet Apr 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    I’m going home to the Adirondacks this weekend. There is most definitely a particular jargon there. I’ll have to carry a little notebook around at the family party.

  4. 4 Katherine Apr 26th, 2008 at 2:06 am

    I don’t know what it will look like, but I know it’s going to be hilarious. Let the irony fest begin!

  5. 5 Tom Apr 26th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

    Certainly, Katherine, there is a great opportunity for irony and entendre here. I’m looking forward to see how people work with that.

  6. 6 poetmouse Apr 29th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    http://thebadpoetsociety.blogspot.com/2008/04/volcano.html
    PoetMouse: Volcano

  1. 1 Temper, Temper » MAD KANE'S HUMOR BLOG Pingback on Apr 24th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
  2. 2 #24 Acrostic for Read Write Poem « Watermaid’s Weblog Pingback on Apr 28th, 2008 at 8:03 am

WEEKLY READ WRITE PROMPT

July 2, 2008 — The current Get Your Poem On post is here. This is where you leave us a link to your blog, this week in response to Dana ShuffleWords idea, or any other kind of word play. (Or see if RWP-Twitter is for you!)

Next week's prompt will light you up. Thanks, Jill!



WEEKLY READ WRITE ARTICLES

June 26, 2008 — This month Jessica tells us which poets she first picked out to read, all on her own, because she wanted to. Who did you pick out?

Tom's Informal Talk About Forms has got more rhythm.

Christine's latest installment of Get The Lead Out discusses epigraphs. It's an inspired article.

We've been wanting more read here at Read Write Poem and Juliet brings it with her review of Spoken Word Revolution Redux.

January gives us a primer on revision.



POLL DANCE

July 5, 2008 — This time Carolee talks about how we talk about poetry we may not understand straight away in her "poll dance".

There's a new poll up. Yeah, a day early.



RANDOM PROMPTS

A different word or phrase will appear here each time you visit the site or refresh the page. Your current prompt is — caveat emptor



RANDOM WRITING TIP

Take an ordinary object, like a spoon, and think of at least five different uses for it. Develop a poem around the different thoughts that come out of your brainstorming.



RANDOM READING TIP

Many people give up on reading poetry because it’s too hard. But, after you read something difficult, you feel like you can conquer poetry. Quiz your fellow poets to find out what books they’ve found challenging: intellectually, emotionally, or stylistically and give it a try. You may find something that you like, even if you have to bring a long a dictionary, a box of tissues, or both!



RANDOM COLLABORATING TIP

Write a list poem, with each collaborator supplying one or more items for the list. Just think of a topic and you’ll be on your way.


SUBSCRIBE

Read Write Poem RSS Feeds

THE READ WRITE POLL

  • If I gathered up all my finished poems (whatever that means for you), I’d have ...(choose one!):

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...


SITE SEARCH



READ WRITE POEM BUTTON


Below is the code that will allow you to get your very own Read Write Poem button for your blog. The button comes in two sizes, and all you need to do is copy the code for the size you want and paste it into your blog's sidebar or even into your individual Read Write Poem posts.

Large Button Sample and Code





Small Button Sample and Code