Wonderful Words and Why I Like Them

From Wind and Silver:
• Floats. It makes me picture the moon floating in dark water.
• Flash. It's an exciting, active word. I think it helps "wake up" the poem.
• Fish. "Fish" goes so well with "Floats" and "Flash." I also like the soft "sssh" sound it ends with.

From The Snow:
• Sieves. It's a great word to use for "snowy skies" (especially when paired with "leaden," which means dark, soft, and heavy like lead) because when it snows, it does seem like the snow-clouds are giant sieves through which the flakes fall.
• Alabaster. It has a great sound: AL-a-bas-ter. It's also a good word to describe snow, because snow looks as cold, white, and smooth as alabaster marble.
• Sifts. It sounds soft, like snow falling.
• Artisans. It's a funny word to use to describe snowflakes, but I like to imagine the snowflakes as tiny artists ("artisan" means artist or craftsperson) working to transform an autumn landscape into a winter one.
• Stump. "Stump" seems like such an unpoetic word, and yet it still sounds good in this poem.

From October 10:
• October 10. If the poem were called "Autumn" instead of "October 10," I wouldn't like it nearly as much. Titling the poem this way suggests that Berry captured the scene at a precise, fleeting moment--not October 9th or 11th but October 10th. Now, every year on October 10th, I think of this poem.
• Sycamore. It has a beautiful sound and rhythm: "SYC-a-more."
• Crow. Because it's the only noisy thing in the poem.
• Grow. There are a lot of long "O" words in the poem. Even the title, Oc-tooo-ber, has a long "O" sound. Grow is a good example because it ends the poem and it rhymes with an earlier word, "crow."

From Door:
• Whine. Because it's onomatopoetic. That is, actual whining sounds like the word "whing".
• Binoculars. Like "stump," it's not a word you'd expect to find in a poem.
• Mushrooms. Because I love mushrooms! Also, I like the way the word sounds. I always want to say it slowly.

From Disillusionment at Ten O'Clock:
• Baboons. It's a funny word for a funny animal. Who would ever dream of baboons?
• Periwinkles. Another great sounding word. "Periwinkles" seem like they would be something magical.
• Haunted. At first it might be strange to think that a nightgown could "haunt" something but it works well because long white nightgowns look like ghosts.

Now For the Fun Part!