I so love being forced (voluntarily, I realise) to write poetry. I will whine, procrastinate, kick the wall, shine some more, and even then skip engire weeks if left to my own (writing) devices. But give me structure & a deadline, & I’m down.
So here’s my last (I think?) NaPoWriMo prompt, day #18:
Today, I challenge you to write a poem that incorporates neologisms. What’s that? Well, it’s a made-up word! Your neologisms could be portmanteaus (basically, a word made from combining two existing words, like “motel” coming from “motor” and “hotel”) or they could be words invented entirely for their sound. Probably the most famous example of a poem incorporating neologisms is Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, but neologisms don’t have to be funny or used in the service of humor. You can use them to try to get at something that you don’t have an exact word for, or to create a sense of sound and rhythm, or simply to make the poem feel strange and unworldly.
I found it immensely freeing to write with made-up words. I strongly recommend it as an exercise. Here’s the poem:
In the blithful momus wey
The sunby frogs sang luffabees
And all the glitwinged startleduks
Swanneled through the melomy.
Tea and Breath 