Creative Writing Workshop: Glossary of Terms

Creating your own lexicon. After Franny Choi.

Franny Choi, and a copy of Soft Science (Alice James, 2019).

PC: Graham Cotten.

This Workshop is one of my favorites, and is sure to get the creative juices going to get you a good poem out of it. Today, we are taking a page from one of the greatest to ever put pen to paper, Franny Choi! And we are looking at their opening poem from their collection of poetry, Soft Science (Alice James, 2019)

This is “Glossary of Terms!” Take a moment to read it. Here is a hint on how to tackle this poem: it reads like a times table, going down the row instead of across the columns.

“For example: Star//meaning//bright, ancient wound I follow home//see also//spark; stranger; scripture; sting;//antonym//fish//origin//a myth; a mother’s stories; matter’s static//Dreams of being//reached//Ghost//meaning//…” and so on.

At first glance, you might ask yourself? How is this a poem? How can you read that? And what style of format is this? I can assure you one hundred percent that this is a poem, and a brilliant one at that. It forces the poet to explore their use of language and stretch the meaning of words that they have not thought about thoroughly enough. Let’s get to it then!

How to Tackle This Poem:

Each row gives a mini prompt in itself. The trick here is to push yourself to define the word by your experience and your worldview.

First, pick a subject that you feel you haven’t written on. You are going to need to pick a minimum of 4 words. You can pull these words from an experience you are still trying to parcel through. I have had success with this poem by researching the local news.

Here is my version of the poem, written after LA sustained heavy damage last year because of flash floods.

Each column can be tackled in two phases.

Part 1: Similes and Metaphors: You will be using Similes and metaphors to flesh out the first four rows

Row 1: Define the Word: This is self-explanatory, but where most poets try to use a copy-and-paste definition of their word. I urge you to try a definition that is closer to your heart. The more specific to you, or the topic you are writing the better.

Row 2: See also: give us words that you feel are closely related to your definition, with a specific emphasis on introducing new ideas that can’t fit perfectly in your definition.

Row 3: Antonyms: What words are in complete opposition to the word you are talking about? Be messy. Poets are full of contradictions, and this is an excellent time to show that off.

Row 4: Origin: Where did this thing come from? You could go out of your way to explain its true origin if it’s as old as dirt, but wouldn’t it be more interesting to speak about the first time it was introduced to you? Why not a mix of both?

Part 2: Personification: For this part, you will be personifying the word that you chose. Personification is when an inanimate object is described using human characteristics. Most commonly with the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

Row 5: Its Purpose: This row I made up for this workshop (and if people wanted to turn this poem into a slam poem, giving them more than 2 minutes worth of content to write to). Now that we have a bigger idea of what this word is that you are defining, tell us what it is meant to do? What function does it perform? Is it alive?

Row 6: Dreams of being: This is where you tell us what the item desires. It might be in complete opposition to its purpose. Maybe its desire is what problematizes its purpose. That is for you to decide as a poet.

Once you have gone down every column, move on to the next one. Until you have completed your poem.

When you are done, you should have a cohesive poem with four well-defined words that hopefully coexist with one another. After all, the strength of this poem is not about these detached definitions. There needs to be a thread, an idea, a theme that connects these words.

Here are some tips in case you’re stuck:

1. Feel free to jump around. You don’t have to stick to one box if you feel you have a better idea for another column. You’ll be surprised how much each answer informs the other. Which leads me to…

2. Go back and change what you have. Maybe what you wrote no longer makes sense in the context of what was written before, or vice versa.

3. If you find that some words are too similar, pick the stronger of the two and combine the answers you came up with for both, and clean up what might not fit.

Make Your Own

Here is a copy of the Google Doc so you can get started with a version of your own. As always, all I ask is that you share your final product with me.

Happy writing, poets!