Word Geek

Why does stuff like this excite me? It doesn't do anything...there's no real practical application for it...

Reminds me of the Visual Thesaurus. It's been around for years, and is so popular that one can't spend time just being in it without paying (but you can still browse briefly). It has a more obvious application, but there's the danger of going to it to look for a word, but getting lost in the patterns, in the search. Would make a great gift for the word-junkies on your list (hint, hint!)

Bought a new notebook yesterday, to investigate poetry a bit more deeply. I want to write out the bits that intrigue me, and maybe even work on some of my own. A line that has held my interest for awhile is from a poem by Seamus Heaney (not to be missed: It's available online with an audio file of him reading):

I remembered her head bent towards my head,

Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives--

According to Wordcount, the overall use of the word fluent is ranked at 13919, dipping at 15457, and knives at 9339. We write about sharp edges more than we talk about the flowing nature of speech.

I'll leave you with a line (utterly out of context) from "To the Days" by Adrienne Rich:

A typewriter's torrent, suddenly still.
Blue soaking through fog, two dragonflies wheeling.
Acceptable levels of cruelty, steadily rising.
Whatever you bring in your hands, I need to see.

Lori