I remember writing this for two reasons. As a teacher (high school and not these days) I was amazed, no not surprised but amazed, as in dumbfounded at how often students even in their last year of school considered the ‘f’ word as a suitable descriptor. They might not have written it down, but they certainly used it aloud with frequency, in the classroom and school grounds, school buses, the list is endless. As a consequence, I have always considered the letter ‘f’ as hard done by, at least in our alphabet. Society makes a mess of many thing in many ways.
The second reason was as a challenge to create a shape poem that could also provide a wealth of words and a great many of them beginning with that very letter. Telling a story would become a bonus. I wanted a triangle that I could also invert. Does it work, shape wise on this page? Trust me, it would if not for my inability to make things look dramatic and thus make poetry more attractive to young people and adults in general. My mantra is I suck at technology so the shape is a little misshaped. In playing with words though, I discovered such a wealth of language. I mean I knew this, knew that I knew this wealth of words, but it still managed to surprise me. Think about it. It’s all there in our heads.
How stupid is it then that so many young people and older people think so short-sightedly when choosing a descriptor for what may be happening around them. Our language is rich in choices and all it needs is for us to consider with wisdom when the need arises to make a choice.
Warning: I have used the word in the poem below but as a word and not a weapon. Blame Chaucer for its creation but blame humans for its misuse.
The F Word
From Emotions in Existence and The Emotions Anthology
Fear, fright, frigid
fickle, failure, frozen
freedom, flying, feeling
fractious, frenzied, flippant
fashionable, fantastic, fabulous
fleeing, fighting, and falling.
Fragrantly fresh friendships and
freakishly fierce foes.
Words are wispy wisdom.
Words are withered wickedness.
Words are simple silent speakers.
Words are slithering in superficial sounds.
They just flow.
They just exist.
They don’t always rhyme
but they can be
manipulating, manoeuvring, mangling
masked mutilators.
They can be
magical, magnificent, meanings
moving mountains.
Why the fuck then, do we choose
a vicious verbal twist so that
semantics become syntax-shaped
weapons creating the
fucking fearful clothed figures
of language failure?
Humane humility, or
‘h’ words are
so much
nicer.
What do you think about this? Let me know,
Barb
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The Emotions Anthology Box Set
I am guilty of this, I must admit, although I try to keep it under my breath while out in public.
I read your blogs and you know lots of words. LOL The trouble with some of those kids, well, it was the only adjective. Teaching is such hard work.
Love it Barb. Many of the words we use, while undesireable, have become socially acceptable. They no longer have the same shock effect they once had, but are still used to be “cool.” In law school, we learned the “f” word was “fair.” We couldn’t use that word unless we could explain how something was legally fair or unfair 🤣