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Day 36 - Write your lexicon!
What’s your lexicon? What’s your language? What’s your personal dictionary of survival?
We all carry secret vocabularies, words that mean more to us than they do to others. Maybe tide means relapse. Maybe bees means danger. Maybe red jumper means the day someone you loved died.
Today’s prompt is to write a personal lexicon poem. You can structure it as a list, a prose block, or a series of definitions. You can write it alphabetically. You can be raw, defiant, strange, surreal, tender, coded. You could even write an abecedarian, where each first letter of each line is another letter of the dictionary.
A Lexicon for Staying
by Max Wallis
A is for Aftershock, where I began again.B is for Blackout, which is not the same as rest.C is for Catalogue, Crisis, Catastrophe, Closure, Cocaine.D is for Dad, teaching me: “Some things are worth paying for.”E is for Enough. I said it a while ago now. And it hurts.F is for F**k. Friends. And f**k the friends who blocked you.G is for Guilt. I keep it in a lunchbox I only open when I’m starved.H is for Hung, Horny, or Hope, depending on the light.I is for Inside Voice. Mine has barbed wire round it.Also: Index, Indecision, Implode.J is for Just Kidding. Jump. Justice. Jokes that aren’t jokes.K is for Kettle left boiling. Knight I didn’t need.L is for Lung. The left sings grief. The right asks for love.M is for Muriel, purring on the stairs like I made the world right.N is for Nothing, and Nobody said a word.O is for Opportunity. And Open—the wound, the door.P is for Poem. Penance. Pestilence. Passion. Please.Q is for Questions, flickering like a lighter I can’t keep lit.R is for Run! And for Running, anyway.S is for Silence. Sanctuary. Sex.T is for Trauma. And for Tiredness. And for Test.U is for Undertow. And Understanding.V is for Voice. I’m just now learning how to use it.W is for Wallis.X is for a kiss I give to my past self. No reply.Y is for the Years I lost. And Yes.A small Yes that builds to the next.Z is for the Zero I needed to add myself back up.
The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe
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By Max Wallis' Daily Aftershock Writing Prompts (The Aftershock Review)What’s your lexicon? What’s your language? What’s your personal dictionary of survival?
We all carry secret vocabularies, words that mean more to us than they do to others. Maybe tide means relapse. Maybe bees means danger. Maybe red jumper means the day someone you loved died.
Today’s prompt is to write a personal lexicon poem. You can structure it as a list, a prose block, or a series of definitions. You can write it alphabetically. You can be raw, defiant, strange, surreal, tender, coded. You could even write an abecedarian, where each first letter of each line is another letter of the dictionary.
A Lexicon for Staying
by Max Wallis
A is for Aftershock, where I began again.B is for Blackout, which is not the same as rest.C is for Catalogue, Crisis, Catastrophe, Closure, Cocaine.D is for Dad, teaching me: “Some things are worth paying for.”E is for Enough. I said it a while ago now. And it hurts.F is for F**k. Friends. And f**k the friends who blocked you.G is for Guilt. I keep it in a lunchbox I only open when I’m starved.H is for Hung, Horny, or Hope, depending on the light.I is for Inside Voice. Mine has barbed wire round it.Also: Index, Indecision, Implode.J is for Just Kidding. Jump. Justice. Jokes that aren’t jokes.K is for Kettle left boiling. Knight I didn’t need.L is for Lung. The left sings grief. The right asks for love.M is for Muriel, purring on the stairs like I made the world right.N is for Nothing, and Nobody said a word.O is for Opportunity. And Open—the wound, the door.P is for Poem. Penance. Pestilence. Passion. Please.Q is for Questions, flickering like a lighter I can’t keep lit.R is for Run! And for Running, anyway.S is for Silence. Sanctuary. Sex.T is for Trauma. And for Tiredness. And for Test.U is for Undertow. And Understanding.V is for Voice. I’m just now learning how to use it.W is for Wallis.X is for a kiss I give to my past self. No reply.Y is for the Years I lost. And Yes.A small Yes that builds to the next.Z is for the Zero I needed to add myself back up.
The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe