Poet's Corner: 20/20 Lexicon by Michael Bazzett

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I have a year subscription to a poetry community called The Poetic License which is moderated by British poet Jo Bell, and January's prompt is Lists, and there is a list (heh) of list poems. I liked this one from Rust & Moth journal Summer 2023.

20/20 Lexicon by Michael Bazzett

Author: (n.) a primate who strikes bargains with words
Breath: (n.) an afterthought until it’s not
Currency: (n.) cousin to current, it’s meant to flow
Danger: (v.) torn from angels, born of anger
Empty: (v.) introduces a present absence
Faith: (n.) is a wicker cage holding invisible birds

Grind: (v.) is a word that skulks between your molars
Hearth: (n.) heart married earth and fire was born
Infinite: (n.) a word extending beyond its first and last letter
Joke: (n.) a staircase descending upward
Knife: (v.) introduces a cutting presence
Listen: (v.) the most useful rearrangement of silent
Maturation: (n.) masturbation with the B.S. removed
No: (n.) how cats say “I love you”
Onion: (n.) a translucent root full of tears
Permanent: (adj.) is what nothing is
Poetry: (n.) a virus that makes us see ghosts
Quibble: (v.) when neither side wishes to bite, so both nibble
Remember: (v.) opposite of dismember
Subtext: (n.) the weird basement beneath the book
Tuber: (v.) just say it out loud, you know what it is
Uvula: (n.) sounds like a genital, but it’s not
Violin: (n.) wooden exoskeleton for yearning
Winter: (n.) when seeds play dead and dream of trees
Xenophobia: (n.) now available in concertina wire
Yes: (n.) how dogs say “I love you”
Zoom: (n.) sworn reversal of the Muse, see also: Hell

Comments

[misbegotten]

Oooh, I like that! Especially "faith" and "poetry"!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yay! Yeah, it's cool, isn't it?