Thursday, August 27, 2020

Verbiage Veritas




image from pinterest.com

 Verbiage Veritas


“Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an action

before it is a place.”--Martha Graham.


Verbing can be exhausting.

I have no trouble jamming or troubling,

but hurricaning and lightninging

is much harder than

thundering and storming.


I can’t be running these days,

so I spend time experting

about film & poetics.


In this media crazy age,

less folks enjoy jawing,

preferring jousting 

with their thumbs.


I’m informed that I must

be emoting not emotioning,

and romancing

rather than romanticing.


One drives a car,

because caring

morphs into affectioning.


I could be punching and kicking

because knuckling and toeing

become murky, and fisting

is something sexual.


I like gardening, but radishing

                                carroting,

                                onioning,

                                meloning,

                                peaing,

                                corning,

                                wheating,

                                mustarding,

are all feral verbs that snag 

on your tongue and sting your ears.


I can be standing and balancing

but erecting strikes a different tone.


I am a knowing person,

but perhaps not knowledgable,

often annoying

but never jocularing,

or ponderousing.


Friending is now more acceptable,

but enemying or adversarying

is harder to pull off.


Meanwhile,

I will continue poeting

on my merry way. 



Glenn Buttkus


Posted over at d'Verse Poet's Pub MTB

16 comments:

Lucy said...

This is very amusing and brilliant, your observations on verbing! Very well-written and raw. Your writing style is truly a treat.

brudberg said...

This is so brilliant and funny... love how you can make two different verbs with different meaning with just a small change.

sarah said...

This made me smile a lot - and you pick up on lots of idiosyncrasies of language here.

Poetry for Healing said...

So funny Glenn! You made so many noun/verbs, I may have to borrow a few for my poem!

calmkate said...

super witty!

feel like I've been nounised ... appreciate your references to social mediaering

indybev said...

We turned stone into a verb and look what happened to it! Loved your clever, clever list!!

robkistner said...

Poeting on your merry way indeed brother — but no peeing in the garden...

Ricardo said...

Yes, let's friend!

Revived Writer said...

Clever! hahaha

Ken Gierke said...

Cleverly done.

Gila Mon said...

Dang! "all feral verbs that snag on your tongue and sting your ears." A fun riff.

JadeLi said...

Nice verb-divvying, Glenn. I saw lots of feral veggying but not potatoing.

Ron. said...

Yes indeed; BLAMMO GOOD! What a pacemaker! Salute.

Dale said...

This was great and had me smiling throughout

Kim M. Russell said...

The first things that hit me were the brilliant image and the alliterative title, Glenn, and I knew I was in for a treat, which was confirmed by the Martha Graham quotation. You obviously had fun with this exhausting exercise. I love:
‘…hurricaning and lightninging
is much harder than
thundering and storming’
and the ‘feral verbs that snag / on your tongue and sting your ears.’
I agree with Sarah, you picked up on lots of idiosyncrasies of language, which made me smile a lot too.

Jane Dougherty said...

A very good illustration of why you can't make verbs out of just any old noun. Funny, and clever.