Sturgeon's Law

Steven,

I have a whole list of words on a "watch" list, words that can get any poem into trouble fast.

I don't know if you were around, but I mentioned a few troublesome words on erato and was soundly pounded with the fact that no word should be verbotten, which isn't what I said at all.

I have brought the "_____ of ______" sequence up as weak construction several times. Do you mean as I do, "the sound of the river...?" It is an interesting discussion, the technical formation of poetry lines, and even more interesting how people react if a new question is offered.

Tom
 

The challenge now, of course, is to use every one of those words in one poem.
 

Tom:

With the "___ of ____" construction, I was mainly thinking of the overused poetry tropes of "big-word of vague-concept" and "really-big-word of ordinary-noun" constructions. Something like "cauldron of shame" for the first, and "clerestory of sky" for the second (to be fair, that's a real example and occurs in a poem I quite like by Lisa Russ Spaar).

Aaron, I can't see myself using half of those words on the first list. I've already badly overused the words on the second list. "Hook" is another one I need to cut down on.
 

Ha. From a recent poem: "an arc of cedar smoke". What do I win?
 

Hmm, if you win anything, it's an Eleventh Muse. Want one? Other than that, you win the "Your Poetry is in Synergy with Steve's" Prize, which isn't much, sadly.