The Wordsmith's Forge

From 1word1day

Friday word: Ladramhaiola
Ladramhaiola (Irish Gaelic): a day that was frittered away, despite one's planning to get a lot done.

We call this "day eaten by locusts."

The California wildfires have brought attention to some terms relating to wildfires and thermodynamic phenomena.

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This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, January 2, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "short forms." I'll be soliciting poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are 15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there: hexaduad, indriso, sestina, villanelle. This list of 168 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my favorite list of forms, including a list of repeating-interlocking forms. Their main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.

In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a huge list of common themes. This page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries or this list of untranslatable words. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a sexual, romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list gender identities and my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my bookshelf? :D I have The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and would love to write poems about many of its words. (I'm up to page 8, so anything 9+ is available. See the 2024 Holiday Poetry Sale for previous examples.) I also have The Conflict Thesaurus, The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 2, The Occupation Thesaurus, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Urban Setting Thesaurus, The Rural Setting Thesaurus, The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. Simply click "Read Sample" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

Arts and Crafts America is ideal for picture prompts, or just name a craft.

Clay of Life suits words from Yiddish, Ladino, or Hebrew.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman suits Italian forms, most of which are short; also Italian words or phrases.

Hart's Farm suits Old Norse poetry or words.

Kung Fu Robots goes with Chinese forms.

Lacquerware suits Japanese forms.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

After the Washington Post incident and its followup, people have been talking about freedom of the press. So far, the Post has lost over 200,000 subscribers -- about 8% of its total -- as well as 2 columnists and 3 of the 9 editorial board members. Kick him where he lives! His wallet.

So what is freedom of the press? What is freedom of thought, of expression? Let's explore...

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Sex and gender are constellations

Sex and gender are the same category of thing. The “stars” are the facts on the ground – the biological traits a person either has or lacks and the cultural beliefs and roles a person either accepts or rejects. The “constellations” are the way we group them together, deciding what belongs with what.

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This poem was an extra written while awaiting prompts for the October 15, 2024 Bonus Fishbowl. It fills the "Costume" square of my 10-1-24 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. It has been sponsored by janetmiles. This poem belongs to the series A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows and follows "Harmonoia."

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smmg has posted about the Modern Celtic Languages webring.  If you know one of those, check it out! 

Marmosets call one another by name

Enduring vocal labels for individuals may be a window into how humans evolved language.
Miniscule monkeys called marmosets give one another individual “names,” researchers report today in Science. After recording chirpy conversations between pairs of marmosets in a captive colony, researchers observed how the animals responded to one another and to playbacks of the recordings, discovering that they use distinct vocalizations known as “phee-calls” to address and communicate with specific individuals. A given monkey could tell when a call was directed at them, for example, and respond appropriately. The finding adds to recent revelations about marmoset communication, including that they learn to “talk” as infants by mimicking their parents, take turns while communicating, and even eavesdrop on their neighbors’ conversations.


Compare with elephant names.

My suspicion is that, now scientists have figured out some animals use names, they will quickly discover that a lot of other intelligent animals do it too.  I would frankly check all the social animals often featured in cognitive studies such as other primates, cetaceans, wolves, corvids, parrots, etc.

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

If language influences how we perceive color, what other things could languages be changing our perception of?

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