What's your least favorite word?

[Tzara]

In a poem, that is. What word, when you trip over it in a poem, not only stubs your aesthetic toe but causes you to face plant? What is it about the word that's so bad? Is it overused and cliché? Over descriptive? Under descriptive? So generic as to not say anything?

Unapologetic asked for your favorite. I want to know what word(s) make you cringe.

 

[Tzara]

Soul

This one is always a clunker for me. I know many, perhaps even most, of you have used it in a poem. Heck, I've probably used it in a poem. I know for a fact Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Glück has used it, 'cuz it was in a poem of hers I read yesterday.

Sorry, people, but I almost always gag when I read this. It's like it's always tossed in to make the poem deep and meaningful. Drives me crazy. Maybe I just don't feel deeply or something, but I come across "soul" in a poem, it better be a poem about Ray Charles or I am stopping right then and there.

About the only word I can think of that's worse is the truly awful "soulmate". Ick. That one's like eating granulated sugar with a spoon.

 

[ruminator]

feels

the unnecessary substitution of better words is what poetry is all about. If a word such as 'feels' can't be replaced with a better one, then I think the effort may be insincere.

 

[TheRainMan]

In a poem, that is. What word, when you trip over it in a poem, not only stubs your aesthetic toe but causes you to face plant? What is it about the word that's so bad? Is it overused and cliché? Over descriptive? Under descriptive? So generic as to not say anything?

Unapologetic asked for your favorite. I want to know what word(s) make you cringe.

it's a tie between gossamer and obsidian and indigo.

i don't think it's so much the words themselves, as the poor and obvious ways they are used by some poets, too many poets.

for some reason, those poor words seem very vulnerable to the leaky pens of mediocre poets . . . are they easy? . . . verbal equivalents of loose women?
i don't know what it is . . . maybe those words just wear the scarlet letter of "new age" on their chests, poor things.

and there are others too . . . oh, yes, i know there are others -- they're hiding from me for the moment.

oh, and any reference to a pagan god or goddess -- that makes me cringe, unless it's done in a unique and classy way, which it usually isn't.

. . . was i only supposed to pick one?

ever heard of a photo finish? . . . with the whole field tied for first?

ok. i'll shut up.

 

[WickedEve]

I usually get freaked out over soul, heart, passion, desire, lust. Though a good poet can make them work.
I'm not too fond of butterfly, dragon, fairy, elves.
Fire can fuck up a poem.
I hate the word ooze. Oh, pus is bad one. Slime.
I've seen these words in poems!
Moon is iffy.
Fluffy and ahhhh.
Was I supposed to pick just one?

 

[TheRainMan]

I usually get freaked out over soul, heart, passion, desire, lust. Though a good poet can make them work.
. . .

ain't that the truth.

it ain't the word, boys and girls . . . it's the writer.

 

[CeriseNoire]

Cunt. Not because of politics or propriety, it's just the sonority of it that bothers me. Stuff, although that's a professional by-product, and fuck when used as a substitute for stuff or thing because the person can't be bothered to think of a word.

 

[TheRainMan]

. . . About the only word I can think of that's worse is the truly awful "soulmate". Ick. That one's like eating granulated sugar with a spoon.

but . . . but . . . but, suppose the word is used in a totally unique way,

like for instance,

to describe the relationship between a bum and a smashed cigarette he's lifted off the street?

i think you can turn a seemingly cliched word around and make it extra powerful, if you do it right.

what say, Tristan?

 

[Tzara]

Solitude

In the lone indigo night,
his soul is lost. A gossamer breeze

dries obsidian tears that run,
trailing like a fluffy ooze,
down his mournful, fiery cheek.

And now here is the moon.
How he feels it!

 

[wildsweetone]

I usually get freaked out over soul, heart, passion, desire, lust. Though a good poet can make them work.
I'm not too fond of butterfly, dragon, fairy, elves.
Fire can fuck up a poem.
I hate the word ooze. Oh, pus is bad one. Slime.
I've seen these words in poems!
Moon is iffy.
Fluffy and ahhhh.
Was I supposed to pick just one?

rats. i just used oozing in a poem. actually i think i just wrote one of those poems. thank God nothing i write is chiseled in rock.

 

[WickedEve]

but . . . but . . . but, suppose the word is used in a totally unique way,

like for instance,

to describe the relationship between a bum and a smashed cigarette he's lifted off the street?

i think you can turn a seemingly cliched word around and make it extra powerful, if you do it right.

what say, Tristan?

The bum found his soul mate in the smashed cigarette...
Yeah, that could work.
I think any word can work if it's in a Pat poem or some other brilliant poet. I'm not kissing your ass, Pat. I just think you're brilliant in a mediocre way. hee hee

 

[WickedEve]

rats. i just used oozing in a poem. actually i think i just wrote one of those poems. thank God nothing i write is chiseled in concrete.

You oozed? Please share the poem.

 

[Tzara]

but . . . but . . . but, suppose the word is used in a totally unique way,

like for instance,

to describe the relationship between a bum and a smashed cigarette he's lifted off the street?

i think you can turn a seemingly cliched word around and make it extra powerful, if you do it right.

what say, Tristan?

Of course. But it better be used in a damned clever fashion. What is it the SPCP (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Poetry) says?

There are no bad words, just bad poets.

 

[wildsweetone]

You oozed? Please share the poem.

i didn't ooze, a raw bleed oozed... and i think the poem's too abstract. but i'll stick it in the 30/30 as i don't know if i'll get another chance to write today.

 

[ruminator]

I will add a small piece that should offend few, if any


I dare not title it, eh?

 

[TheRainMan]

Of course. But it better be used in a damned clever fashion. What is it the SPCP (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Poetry) says?

There are no bad words, just bad poets.

i agree with that 110% percent, 110% (to quote Jack Nicholson).

 

[TheRainMan]

The bum found his soul mate in the smashed cigarette...
Yeah, that could work.
I think any word can work if it's in a Pat poem or some other brilliant poet. I'm not kissing your ass, Pat. I just think you're brilliant in a mediocre way. hee hee

more personal amusement, eh, you wicked thing.

 

[WickedEve]

more personal amusement, eh, you wicked thing.

How do you feel about the birds and bees? Not an easy thing to make fresh in any poem. Unless it's about a bird/bee fight to the death. Maybe a poem about taboo love--the bird has honey fever.

 

[TheRainMan]

How do you feel about the birds and bees? Not an easy thing to make fresh in any poem. Unless it's about a bird/bee fight to the death. Maybe a poem about taboo love--the bird has honey fever.

i honestly think you can write a good poem about anything, or use any word in the dictionary, even the most cliched phrases, and do it well.

you just have to know what you're doing. there's the rub.

you MUST make it fresh . . . new.

 

[WickedEve]

i honestly think you can write a good poem about anything, or use any word in the dictionary, even the most cliched phrases, and do it well.

you just have to know what you're doing. there's the rub.

you MUST make it fresh . . . new.

A cliche is dangerous in the hands of a novice poet. God knows we read them often here at lit. I remember starting out with cliches. It seems a lot of newbies do. Only problem is that many never move past the tired phrases.

 

[TheRainMan]

A cliche is dangerous in the hands of a novice poet. God knows we read them often here at lit. I remember starting out with cliches. It seems a lot of newbies do. Only problem is that many never move past the tired phrases.

EVERYONE starts out with cliches. i don't think there's anything wrong with a new writer using them, as long as they slowly weed them out as they start figuring the whole thing out.

language is an infinitely complex thing.

some people learn, some don't. some try and succeed, some try and fail. some refuse to try at all . . . it's like anything.

 

[WickedEve]

EVERYONE starts out with cliches. i don't think there's anything wrong with a new writer using them, as long as they slowly weed them out as they start figuring the whole thing out.

language is an infinitely complex thing.

some people learn, some don't. some try and succeed, some try and fail. some refuse to try at all . . . it's like anything.

And the more you write, the easier it is to get away from cliches. They're like training wheels.

Oozing passion and fluffy butterflies to you Pat.

 

[TheRainMan]

And the more you write, the easier it is to get away from cliches. They're like training wheels.

Oozing passion and fluffy butterflies to you Pat.

are you my soulmate?

 

[eagleyez]

I suppose my least favorite word in a poem is Poem.

 

[darkerdreamer]

I can't stop with endless words.

infinitely, endlessly, eternally

Everywhere I turn, there they are.

Also, amber for the same reason. Colors in general, for that matter.