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…
language
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…
The mathematician John Venn was born on this day in 1834. To commemorate the occasion, here’s a poem in the form of a Venn diagram.
I took delivery yesterday of some advance copies of the gorgeous new edition of ‘You Took the Last Bus Home’. In celebration of that, here’s the title poem … You Took the Last Bus Home you tookthe last bus homedon’t know howyou got it through the door you’re always doing amazing stuff like the time…
Last week saw the release of ‘Sounds Made by Humans’, an album of ‘poem songs’ I’ve made with the brilliant Catenary Wires. The album is out now on vinyl and CD; it’s also available for streaming on Spotify and elsewhere, and can be downloaded. Some places where you can find it… BANDCAMP SHOPIFY ROUGH TRADE…
Insular definitions of the national past overlook the very things we should take pride in
Half of the world's languages are endangered. One new prize champions language justice by awarding language activists from across the world the Language Rights Defenders Award.