Hey now, one of my favorite things of the year: my Creative Writing class' class-generated list of poetry terms!
**
List of Poetry Terms (Fall 2017)
by ENG 231
4'33'' - John Cage ft. Elvis in a motorized chair w/ fidget spinner
abducted - by Shabba Shabba or John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
abhor or anew - I get paid to pee
ALL CAPS - Why are you yelling at me, Grandpa?
apple urbanized avocado - an appetizer at Applebee's
barn owls - they're watching us
beat - yawning prophecy
beer-soaked - I'm automatically in a frat house
blue - enormous, icy, shame
blue fire - they should make that emoji
Chekhov's gun - a loaded first line that will definitely go off ("My Life had stood" etc.)
composure - poem steadies itself so not to fall
cough so hard - things fall out of my pockets
death sentence - the last line is a vaudeville guillotine
enlightenment - seeing everything on the way to the Japanese restaurant
e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g - is the opposite of nada
feedback - "these words don't do anything for me"
Fuck You - the peace man is nuts
girth - figurative encompassing
hangry - the poem keeps autocorrecting "anger" to "hunger"
Hennessy - the third wheel, like Dupree
Howl - a poem for the downtrodden, drug-addicted, and lovelorn, who live their lives in opposition to our shallow, restrictive, brutal culture of militarism and consumerism and political oppression, you know, like Jenny in Forrest Gump formal dresses for women over 50
igneous - dumb as a rock
I am here - the answer when someone asks "Where are you?" (whether that be a nurse, the organizers of rally, or the God of the Old Testament)
I love you - eat your words, bite your tongue
I sing - announcing, any moment now, awesomeness
Indian food - a traditional Thanksgiving at Shalimar
It - a Biblical storm or a clown that feeds on your fear
-ish - a little called anything
l'appel du vide - the call of the void
like lust - the sun is your friend / but also your enemy
looking at v. looking through - when your hair gets stuck in a window, gets ripped out, and then it's gone
lool - laugh out out loud
loyalty - it's not soap / throw it out the window
Macy's - The Maze
meaning of life - getting to the heart is always messy
Melanerpes erythrocephalus - a luxuriously hungover woodpecker
memory - is and isn't just all of your family vacations
mourning - that kind of morning
movies - the idle torment of linear narratives shot in proscenium
Netflix - if you don't like poetry, there are plenty of other streaming options
obstracted - abstracted and obstructed
open field - the coach's clipboard
OS bug - a self-conscious, clock-checking, can't listen, freak out
pickup line (1) - "You have a nice smile. You know who else would like your smile? Jesus."
pickup line (2) - "I have the same birthday as John Milton"
poetry (1) - unwriting reality
poetry (2) - brain gifts
poetry (3) - peaceful way to say power
poetry (4) - different kind of learning
poetry (5) - stylistic (mis)use of language
poetry (6) - sharing flow
poetry (7) - there is nothing / that cannot / be represented
political climate - in this air, a poem could vanish or explode
prayers - poems and poets of hope and despair
president - orange condom filled with mayonnaise
prosopagnosia - poem can't recognize your face
pyrotechnics - poem is wired for fireworks and has stadium seating
quiet - the sound of a plant being tortured
redolent - the poem reeks of alcohol
regurgitation - what's it called when cows throw up in their mouths?
rePropering - we decide what's Proper on a case-by-case basis
salty - spitfire, snarly, sharped-shaped
Sisyphus - what you pay for when you're paying for college
sleep (1) - Sophia's favorite thing to do
sleep (2) - like going to the dentist
spin cycle - the poem got put in the washing machine
spread - language moves like butter on bread
stomach drop - what is that?
swan song - the golden goodbye
thought cloud - not today, Satan
time - playing dominoes
traitee - the person being betrayed
uber blubber - ew
vanity - I endlessly stare into my bathroom mirror that I bought on AllModern.com
Vipassana - poem as either yoga pose or anti-depressant
wab - like the girl in Proverb 30:20 (This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, 'I've done nothing wrong.')
wandering - "Why can't I fly? / Hold on... There's a fly"
whip - the poem moves like my new set of wheels
windows - let some light into the poem
Winnifred-esque - a poem brewing with chants, spells, changes in pitch, flung meat, and collected bones
wrong room - everyone in this poem is covered in fish guts
Youtube stanzas - when the sections of this poem feel like a feature movie uploaded to Youtube in pieces
Yoda (v.) - flipping syntax (Yoda that, you gotta)