to word, or not to word?

It’s that time of year--or even that time of decade--when our thoughts may turn to One Little Word. I'm uncertain where the idea of choosing a single word rather than a RESOLUTION originated, but at the Two Writing Teachers blog, Stacy Shubitz described the One Little Word practice thusly in 2011:

"Instead of thinking about a new year’s resolution for 2012, consider thinking about one little word you’ll live by this coming year. Living with one little word as your guide throughout an entire year provides you with more clarity."

So this month the Sunday Poetry Swaggers' challenge is to reflect, in poetry, on the question of whether “to Word” in 2020. Each of us has a different history with OLW and of course various feelings about the usefulness of selecting a word to guide our daily living through the coming year.

It seems my own OLW journey began in 2015. From the beginning, I resisted settling on just one word, immediately revising my first choice, LIGHT, to REVISE, which conveniently left open all kinds of possibilities. https://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2015/01/revision.html 

In 2016 I must have completely forgotten about the whole idea of One Little Word. There is no bloggival evidence that I even THOUGHT of choosing One Little Word.

In 2017 I eschewed a single word for THREE Little Words (always a greedy one, me). They were READY. STEADY. GO. https://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2017/01/inaugural-3lw.html Fancy my paying enough attention to them to return in September, a full 9 months later, to see how the New Year’s Baby had grown! https://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2017/09/return-of-3lw-and-burma-shave.html

 In 2018, it would appear, I quietly and deliberately did not choose One Little Word, the unhelpful burden of which I commented on the next year in 2019 when I exchanged OLW for ODT, One Difficult Truth.That choice did me a world of good throughout the year. https://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2019/01/not-olw-but-odt.html

So it is perhaps unsurprising that now, with 2020 hindsight, I stop pretending that One Little Word will ever suit my greedy, undisciplined, spatter-focused personality. 

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Dear Words, ALL Words, 

I love how you are  

multitudinous, 
pulchritudinous,  
allowing me the latitude 
to utter any attitude. 
I need not stoop to platitudes-- 
your precision’s magnitudinous-- 
and so I’m full of gratitude 
to you, Words, for your plenty. 

I don’t think even twenty 
of you, fifty or a hundred 
could see me through a year, 
could peek at me, speak at me, Latin 

and Greek at me.  Hello?! I’m aglow

with your abundance, portmanteaux

and loanwords, cognates and calques;

at your smorgasbord of choices

my greedy mouth rejoices.

So it does not behoove me--

I don’t think it improves me--

to choose a single one of you to guide 

me through my year. Instead

I choose you all, each of you in your time,

momentary, legendary, literary, prime,

ordinary, necessary, abstract and applied

to all the shades and grades, 

the hints and hues of meaning

to which my heart is leaning,

on which my brain’s caffeining,

by which my soul is stirred.

I even choose all of you words 

my ear has never heard!

To choose just one--One Little Word--

paupers me, stoppers me, is resistibly 

absurd. I announce my renouncement 

of One Little Word. 


draft (c) Heidi Mordhorst 2019

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All that being said, you know that I'm continuing to focus my attention on CLIMATE this year, both as the fundamental issue of this decade and as the foundation of my classroom work.  

Meanwhile, I can't wait to see what the Sunday Poetry Swaggers are thinking about their OLWs this year. Do visit each of them to find out.

 
-Catherine at Reading to the Core -Margaret at Reflections on the Teche -Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone 
-Linda at A Word Edgewise

Our host for the first round-up of 2020 is Carol at Carol's Corner. I wonder if she has a word in mind?