How to Write a Poem and snot green buttons

I’m not sure where poems come from. They often seem like mysterious visitors bringing unexpected treasure.
/Susan G. Wooldridge

This winter mom had a hang-up on wrist-warmers. I think she knitted something close to ten pairs (!) with pearls!? She sold most of them, gave me one pair and inspired me to knit a pair of my own with pearls! When the wrist-warmer period was over she went back to sweaters and I have no idea how many she knit in a year/summer. In the pile to finish was two last time we looked and she established that the white one was a bit too small for her.

She asked if I wanted that too-small-for-mom-sweater? A white cardigan in soft cotton yarn? It was sewn together too, only missing some buttons. I did not hesitate to say yes. Yes thank you! Haven’t I been bugging her to knit me one for quite a while now? Her response is always that I can knit myself now. Hmpf! Though that is true I knit slowly and still am a bit hesitant when it comes to complex patterns (that require any kind of calculation or planning). Mom picked up the other sweater that also was buttonless.

So we sat down on the terrace one day and set out to pick matching buttons for our hand-knitted sweaters. I liked the bright red ones, but thought they would dominate to much. I settled for snot green transparent buttons in plastic.
I guess mom shrugged at my choice.
I bet she’d picked mother-of-pearl buttons.
I just smiled. I like snot green!
I like how it shimmers like the tender green of spring.
I am not being snot when saying I like how I look in my new cardigan. No, snot at all!

You can look up any word. Even if you know the meaning of it, look it up! I looked up the word “shrug” at answers.com (one of my favorite encyclopedic places) for this post, to be sure that I got the meaning right. It’s exactly right, it’s what mom did when I chose snot green buttons for her carefully knitted sophisticated cardigan. But she shrugged (to raise the shoulders, especially as a gesture of doubt, disdain, or indifference) in a nice way leaving to me to decide and follow my own likings. I am always drawn to more crazy and strange than my mother when it comes to style and color.

Withered – such a beautiful (and sad?) word! Meaning that it’s shriveled, shrunken, or faded from or as if from loss of moisture or sustenance! It is autumn here indeed.

Just for fun I sometimes enter words that I want to read more about, today I looked up green, described like this:
The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between yellow and blue, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 490 to 570 nanometers; any of a group of colors that may vary in lightness and saturation and whose hue is that of the emerald or somewhat less yellow than that of growing grass; one of the additive or light primaries; one of the psychological primary hues. Wow! Isn’t that the coolest thing? Did you know that about ordinary green that you see everywhere?! I could’ve never come up with any description for green, or perhaps it would’ve come out a poem play.

Looking up words is great way to play with words and finding new ones. Just list the words in a text-extract that you’re drawn to. Hold onto a pen the next time you read anything. The newspaper, a book, your diary.
In the text above I’m drawn to;
radiant energy,
growing grass,
hue,
emerald,
visible spectrum,
evoked and saturation!

I was reading Susan G. Wooldridge’s diary-like book Foolsgold (Making Something from Nothing and freeing your creative process) this morning, I guess her words about words and writing has affected me. I had to make a list of English words on the inside of my diary’s cover. Words that shimmer to me. If you put two favorite word together you’ve got the start of a poem!

Endless encouragement…

Glowing ornaments…

Faraway delight…

Thanks for all your comments and encouragement about everything!
YOU, my readers, are both as individuals and a group, my doctor, my shrink, my friend and my drive. Even if you have never commented or are here to gawk at my life (which I think would be a bit sad) I consider you my friend, just so you know. I hope visiting will bring you joy and happiness into YOUR life…

XXXOOO

PS: What words is on your list today?

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