January 2022 – Princeton Writes

Word of the Week: gonfalon (GŎN-fə-lŏn)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-11T11:25:26-05:00

Word of the Week: gonfalon (GŎN-fə-lŏn) Definition (Noun) A banner or ensign, frequently composed of or ending in several tails or streamers, suspended from a cross-bar instead of being directly fastened to the pole, especially as used by various Italian republics or in ecclesiastical processions. In Context "At a critical moment the brave old sea-dog was seen erect in his armour on the prow of his galley, the gonfalon of St. Mark unfurled before him." Thomas Okey, The Story of Venice, 1905.

Word of the Week: gonfalon (GŎN-fə-lŏn)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-11T11:25:26-05:00

A Poem for You:Tennessee Valley Authority

admin2021-11-11T10:45:39-05:00

Tennessee Valley Authority BY ISABEL DUARTE-GRAY The corpse boat split the lilies in a black and heaving ribbon in a final day on earth. This lake ain't lake the way a god shapes lakes with claws of ice. A living man remembers when this hole was not a place of many waters but a city drowned in just a day. Underneath the lilies can't you see the roofs where finches threw a nest for sowing panic grass and babies. There was brides made in this place where herons sweep at corners. Mudcats breed here now their knowing whiskers rooted. Home the only [...]

A Poem for You:Tennessee Valley Authorityadmin2021-11-11T10:45:39-05:00

A Poem for You: Internet Support Group

admin2021-11-11T10:43:55-05:00

Internet Support Group BY CHELSEA B. DESAUTELS In the shade of a maple tree, on a grassy hill, three women laid hands on me. One saw a cave in my hips. Another felt bricks rising from a brook. The last heard a bellow from deep within the woods. We were strangers come together to spend an afternoon drinking tea & sharing stories of cellular bad luck, then suddenly makeshift healers summoning our mothers' lessons on touch— on heat & symmetry, tenderness & release. From above, we might have looked like sundials or spokes on a round knitting loom. We wanted so [...]

A Poem for You: Internet Support Groupadmin2021-11-11T10:43:55-05:00

Word of the Week: ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:50:32-05:00

Word of the Week: ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē) Definition (Noun) Capability of being easily led or influenced; tractableness, docility. In Context "Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the easiness, openness, ductility of his temper, though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied." Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice, 1813.

Word of the Week: ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:50:32-05:00

Word of the Week: frowzy (FROU-zē)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:23:29-05:00

Word of the Week: frowzy (FROU-zē) Definition (Adjective) Ill-smelling, fusty, musty; having a "close" unpleasant smell from being dirty, unwashed, ill-ventilated, or the like. In Context "Those London lodgings, -- I should have to live in lodgings in London, poor lodgings, because they are cheap and I am cheap, -- frowzy lodgings, savored with frying, garnished at intervals with a slatternly landlady and a little slavey." "The Contributors' Club," The Atlantic Monthly, March 1904.

Word of the Week: frowzy (FROU-zē)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:23:29-05:00

A Poem for You: First Thought

admin2021-11-11T10:20:41-05:00

First Thought BY LORNA DEE CERVANTES best thought, you had taught me — a river runs through it, the foot of the soul standing stubbornly in the freeze, all the shards of ice crumpling up the banks, what survives in the ignorance. Play it away. Be ceremony. Be a lit candle to what blows you. Outside, the sun gives a favorite present, mountain nests in ironic meadows, otter takes off her shoes, the small hands of her feet reaching, reaching; still, far away people are dying. Crisp one dollar bills fold another life. You taught me to care in the moment, carve [...]

A Poem for You: First Thoughtadmin2021-11-11T10:20:41-05:00

Word of the Week: jackanapes (JĂK-ə-nāps)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:35:39-05:00

Word of the Week: jackanapes (JĂK-ə-nāps) Definition (Noun) One who is like an ape in tricks, airs, or behavior; a ridiculous upstart; a pert, impertinent fellow, who assumes ridiculous airs; a coxcomb. Also, playfully, a pert forward child, a "monkey." In Context "'God, what's the Navy coming to, when warrants are given to young jackanapes who couldn't keep their noses clear with a marlin-spike!'" C. S. Forester, Commodore Hornblower, 1945.

Word of the Week: jackanapes (JĂK-ə-nāps)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:35:39-05:00

A Poem for You: Facing It

admin2021-11-11T10:16:39-05:00

Facing It BY YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn't dammit: No tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. I turn this way—the stone lets me go. I turn that way—I'm inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial again, depending on the light to make a difference. I go down the 58,022 names, half-expecting to find my own in letters like smoke. I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash. Names shimmer on a woman's blouse but when she [...]

A Poem for You: Facing Itadmin2021-11-11T10:16:39-05:00

A Poem for You: Advice to Myself

admin2021-11-02T17:06:41-04:00

Advice to Myself by Louise Erdich Leave the dishes. Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor. Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster. Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup. Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins. Don't even sew on a button. Let the wind have its way, then the earth that invades as dust and then the dead foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch. Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome. Don't keep all the pieces [...]

A Poem for You: Advice to Myselfadmin2021-11-02T17:06:41-04:00

Word of the Week: reify (RÉ-ə-fī)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:15:25-05:00

Word of the Week: reify (RÉ-ə-fī) Definition (Verb) To make (something abstract) more concrete or real; to regard or treat (an idea, concept, etc.) as if having material existence. In Context "One should not reify the concept of family or the generalizations about families to the extent that they become 'the family' in a particular culture or society." Charles B. Hennon and Stephan M. Wilson, Editors, Families in a Global Context, 2008.

Word of the Week: reify (RÉ-ə-fī)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:15:25-05:00

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