Lost words
Weekly Writing Prompt No. 62
Hello everyone, and welcome to the weekly writing prompt.
For those new to The Writing Shed, the weekly writing prompt is the core of my activity here on Substack. Paid members can find an archive of courses I’ve created and access all past writing prompts, flash fiction attempts, and essays in The Index.
So have fun, enjoy the process, and write heaps.
I love words, the feel of them, the sound of them as they roll around my head or off my tongue. I ponder on the nature of them, who was the first person to speak them, why they used those particular syllables and sounds, and how they came to mean the things they do. I’m curious about why a table is a ‘table’, and a chair is a ‘chair’.
Words like treadle, trundle, and transmogrify have a rhythm and fluidity that convey something of the use they are put to but I wonder if that is because we have a definition to turn to? My fascination with words means I want to understand and capture the essence of the ones we use to help me understand why the human world is the way it is.
I’ve recently finished reading Robert Macfarlane’s book, Landmarks which captures the imagination of landscape and place-based words beautifully. But it is an elegy to language that points towards the fundamental drift of humanity away from the natural world.
The loss of such language simply demonstrates that our imagined separation from Gaia is almost complete. And yet, we are not and never will be separated simply because we, and the world we have built around us, are the product of the world around us. Even if you view the world through the mechanistic lens of the enlightenment thinking that we can see is coming to a culmination, our bodies are a mirror to the food we eat and the environment we live in.
As I read Landmarks, feeling and shifting the words in the glossaries around in my head, I came to understand that reclaiming lost words might be one way to help reverse the trend of environmental degradation and decline. Those words might be a trigger to recognise that there is so much more to planet Earth than simply being ‘natural capital’.
We navigate the world through language and words. When we notice a feeling, eat a meal, or make a journey we use language to explain to ourselves what we are doing, how we are experiencing the world, and why. I feel hungry, I feel sad, I am happy; this is the language we use to express needs and is one of the first things we learn as young children. We not only communicate with others through language we also use it to communicate with ourselves. When we lose language, we lose the innate understanding we have about how the natural and human worlds work.
You can follow Robert Macfarlane on what used to be Twitter!
The Prompt
This week, take each word in order starting at the top and weave them into something spellbinding and thoughtful. It should contain an essence of the same sentiment.
The quote above is from George Herbert.
Please share your poetry or prose in the comments below, I love to see how differently each prompt is approached, and a wide variety of responses demonstrates possibilities to the rest of us we might not have thought of.
Remember, you never know where today’s prompt may take you in the future!
Reflect
I include a reflection opportunity with every writing prompt. Personally, it helps me to write them longhand in my bullet journal as the act of moving my hand across a page seems to create a deeper connection to my inner world. You might like to do the same to see how differently it feels, especially if you write predominantly with a device.
Glubs are plums in my family because my brother couldn’t call them by their proper name. Are there any family or local words that you still use that anchor you in a heritage or place?
As a coach, mentor, and counsellor I work with many people on very different journeys. Some hope to write a best-selling book, while others simply want to be healthier and happier. Each person has a unique way of starting the inner work this requires. If you’re a writer who wants to manifest your writing hopes and dreams from the practical and pragmatic to the esoteric and spiritual, or who would like to clear any subconscious self-sabotage you may be experiencing, why not work with me? To find out more head over to my website by clicking the button below.
Missing in Action
This is a new section of the weekly newsletter and is dedicated to all the words removed from dictionaries over the years. Words that define and describe our world, but which are deemed no longer necessary.
This edition is dedicated to the word Blackberries, recently removed from the OED Children’s Dictionary.
The Weekly Newsletter
Something to ponder ..
Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.…… You can read the rest of the poem on the Poetry Foundation website.
The Weekly Writing Competition
Globe Soup 7-Day Story Writing Challenge
To enter this free competition you must register in advance with Globe Soup. Once you do, when the challenge begins you will be randomly assigned to a theme. You then need to write a story of up to 2,000 words within 7 days.
If you think this sounds like a fun thing to do, you can find out more and register here: https://www.globesoup.net/7-day-story-writing-challenges
With love, light, and laughter
Linda
x
(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)
Good grief, good vibes, good days,
goodness graces me.
Words on paper or shimmering in air,
blessings-in-waiting.
Are we mindful of our tongues and pens
careful of our spells?
Worth a day’s labour is the kindness
of lifting another spirit;
much heart-ache is soothed in a word or two
en courage ma brava
and let me hear you speak kindly to yourself
in your internal unheard words.
Cost uncounted, comes through mindless talk,
the ill-thought jest can deeply wound;
little is the time needed to weave a deeper magic
a connective healing tissue of a few,
even a very few, kind words
Indeed, words define us and how we feel. Without words, I suspect we would reinvent them. Maybe that would take picture form, or music, but we would find some way to fill the void. The thing is, that we ourselves need to be part of that process: to define and name. Otherwise, we are merely observing Creation, not partaking in the actual creation which is our birthright; Genesis 2:20 And Adam gave names...