Logomachy To say that Damianwas sesquipedalianwould be an understatement for there was no abatementin his capacity for loquacityand not one trace of temerityin his pursuitof verbal dexterity. It was precisely this pompositymixed with verbositywhich made him describeKieran Thomas as “crepuscular”. Kieran Thomas was also more muscular. Damian nursed his black eyeand hoped Kieranmight be struck…
language
Slow Puncture I’d use every one of them – each tiny symbol / sign –to ‘light up’ my words … and write eye-catching lines:the comma; the colon; the ellipsis; the slash;the question mark; the hyphen; the en and em dash. In stanzas 1-2, it was all there on show(Was there nothing not used? The short…
The totally ace online booksellers BookKind have chosen ‘How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside’ as their Non-Fiction Book of the Month for April. This is doubly good news because every copy sold via BookKind raises money for charity – just select from a range of charitable organisations when you order: https://bookkind.co.uk/book-of-the-month-home/ In…
And Now for the Weather Today is set to be agreeably alliterative across an assortment of areas although the occasional metaphor may cause some faces to cloud. Idioms will be coming down like stair rods in northern regions, while the south may experience the odd outbreak of similes, like an unexpected shower of arrows. In coastal, littoral, and…
This week, Waterstones are offering 25% off all preorders of my new book, ‘How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside’, which publishes in April: https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-lay-an-egg-with-a-horse-inside/brian-bilston/9781035085729 Alternatively, signed copies are available to order through your local indie bookshop. Waterstones are also promoting 25% off for preorders of the paperback edition of my poetry collection…
An Attempt to Write an Abecedarian Poem in Praise of the Dictionary An unfaltering ability to Bring clarity to the English language Constitutes your Defining quality. Ever since the day we First met and I Giggled at the rude words Hidden amongst your pages, I adored you, Jubilant in the Knowledge that things were Looking up. You offered me the Meaning of life, Not to mention the meaning of…
Government and media organisations used the power of words to shift moral responsibility for the ICE killings, argues linguist Dan Clayton
It’s UK publication day for ‘A Poem for Every Question’, my new collection of poems for children, illustrated by the brilliant Joe Berger. Inside there are poems to answer all sorts of interesting questions: how many stars in the universe exploded today?; who had the first holiday?; how many times a day do we laugh?;…
Roger’s Thesaurus In order to grow, expand, widenhis lexicological corpus,Roger bought, acquired, purchaseda synonymopedia, a thesaurus. Soon, presently, without delay,he no longer ran out of things to say,speak, utter, express, articulate,give voice to, pronounce, communicate. This was all very well, fine, great,wonderful, super, terrificbut his friends, mates, pals found himboring, tedious, dull, soporific. So let…
To make poems rhyme can sometimes be toughas words can seem to be from the same bough,yet each line’s ending sounds different, though,best covered up with a hiccough or cough. Was this upsetting to Byron or Yeats?Dickinson, Wordsworth, Larkin or Keats?Did they see these words as auditory threats?Could they write their lines without caveats? What…