Poem: "Who Once Knew Better Words"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from LJ user My_partner_doug.


"Who Once Knew Better Words"


Literature goes back
a long way in history, like
a dress with a long train.

Writers have spent ages
perfecting their skills.

The difference between
the almost right word
and the right word is
the difference between
the lightning bug
and the lightning.

Each generation of
writers builds on the last.

Every once in a while,
though, something snags,
and people take notice.

Good authors, too,
who once knew better words
now only use four-letter words
writing prose ... anything goes.

Some authors have forgotten
that F was never meant
to be a carpet-bomb.

Using it to distract from
a lack of plot and character,
they wind up delivering
shock without substance.

A skilled writer can deliver
substance without shock
and shock without obscenity.

* * *

Notes:

LJ user My_partner_doug:
"Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose ... anything goes."
-- Cole Porter

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
-- Mark Twain, The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations