Words to never use in a poem Diamonds and in particular, when next to the word like because there must be a better way to describe stars and while we're at it let's add glitter and twinkle and glisten and shimmer to words that should never be used in a poem. Or bolt because the only thing that truly bolts is a horse or fork lightning and part of me would like to add bone to the list because maybe I've used it myself so many times since the day I learned birds have hollow bones or first felt a tiny heart thrumming against its little bone cage. Today I was trying to write a ghazal about rain and you said "like that's never been written about before." Ah rain encased in brain and train I'll have to restrain myself from faking it. Rain. And pool because nothing can pool unless it's flat. Gravity is bossy that way. Rain will pool on the sill outside your window and in the morning if the clouds let go of the sun, even if only for a few moments and if there is a tender wind the glitter of it might pull you from your desk to the glass and the garden will have come alive, red petunias and purple begonias moving with their hands in the air, and the lawns covered with diamonds.
This poem was the winner of the 6th Annual Jack Grapes Poetry Prize (2018).
Realistically, with 7 billion poems being written daily, there’s gonna be a lot of words that are used, well, a lot.
Jude Goodwin’s poem, “Words to never use in a poem,” had me from the start. Her delicious use of language, the playful metaphors that shimmered and danced throughout this exquisite poem, dazzled me and made me laugh out loud. “I was trying to write a ghazal/ about rain and you said “like that’s/ never been written about before.” This is a poem that starts out great and gets even better with each reading.
— Alexis Rhone Fancher, Poetry Editor of Cultural Weekly, poetry prize judge