Thursday, September 20, 2012

File:Skrifmaskin, Halda-maskin, Nordisk familjebok.png

Have I mentioned that I am working on a book? Have I mentioned that it is hard? Have I mentioned that I love this work and hate it by turns? Have I mentioned that it requires coffee, indie folk, and very cold water?

Have I mentioned that the leaves are changing? This is a city of elms, which turn yellow in the autumn (not so much orange, not so much red: for these I image search photos of Michigan). Our neighbor down the street planted a maple sapling this week, and I gauge its settling-in when I walk past on my long shoe-commute. I sat on a bus and watched the trees once this week, too, and pause at intersections to gaze down tunnel-like side streets all dappled green and gold.

Have I mentioned that I am teaching Old English poetry? And that kenning (combining two words with a hyphen to make a vivid replacement for another word) is one of my favorite inheritances of that period of writing? Case in point: shoe-commute. One of my favorites is "whale-road"--meaning a body of water. I also love hearing which kennings my students find compelling in their reading: they bless me when they take surprise delight in those bits of text.

2 comments:

  1. Writing a book IS hard, hard! But I am glad that, as always, you are finding joy on this word-road.

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  2. If I were composing a book it would likely have lots of photo-illustrations & minimal word-count.
    But I do love your style having occasional power-images that help mind-toss the reader into visualization of the thought provoking text.

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