If I Had Time for a Poem...

... it would center on this word that I learned today. I know I'm a poet, despite my lack of time for poetry this month, because I can fall in love with words. Richard Hugo's book, The Triggering Town, taught me that.

My new word of the day is ataraxia, which means a peace of mind. From the Greek, as an opposite of "disturbed."

The word sounds so exotic and complex, at first. Yet when I repeat it, roll it around in my mouth, it's distilled and simple. I don't know what my version of ataraxia looks like (or feels like), but I know that it sounds close to this word.

Robert Frost Redux

I'm not obsessed with Robert Frost by any means, but this is 2 posts in a week. But, the New York Times had this great article about the battle between mainstream and avant-garde poets, which highlighted Frost's work.

It's very funny, because it balances between the seriousness of the debate (is language just meaning or a meaning unto itself) and the absurdity of the debate [it is described as, "a genuine aesthetic disagreement that is serious and important and (as one might say in Poetryland) worthy of a Panel Discussion, Followed by a Short Reception."]

According to the author, Robert Frost's work straddles the divide of using language in an everyday manner and using language to critique language. Of course, it's a precursor to advertise, er, review The Notebooks of Robert Frost, which have just come out. But the build-up to the review is priceless. It uses Frost's own quotes (without prior attribution) to make the argument for experimental poetry.

Can you tell the difference between the ideology behind...

“as soon as I start listening to the words they reveal their own vectors and affinities, pull the poem into their own field of force, often in unforeseen directions.” (avant-garde poet)

and

“the whole thing [poetry] is performance and prowess and feats of association.” (Frost)

I don't know if I can.

Why Can't We Have Television Like This?

On the BBC, they have a television show called Balderdash and Piffle and I think it's a pretty amazing idea. The show follows Oxford English Dictionary linguistic scholars as they try to track down the origins of words. The best part is that the audience follows along and engages in the process of tracking down word origins.

Here is the list of words they are trying to track right now. The show often focuses on slang, because those are the most difficult to track. (They are so difficult to track because it starts in verbal language among social groups and then travels to mainstream written language later.) This season they have divided groups into themes, so that if you have a particular hobby (like fashion) you can track down fashion related words.

Since I only currently watch a few shows on American television, I wonder why we don't have our own Balderdash & Piffle. Are we too busy making shows like this? And this? And this? I've never been much of an anglophile, but I suddenly want to move to Britain. Or at least move my television there.

For Word Nerds Only

I just found this website...it's fascinating, if you're into linguistics or other word nerd stuff. The Vocabula Review stands for the preservation of proper English, in a time of lax attitudes about grammar and language. While I'm not 100% on the side of preserving "real English" and it's inherent classist/racist/sexist implications, I like to read articles from that side of the debate.