The Wordsmith's Forge

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Books
Economics
Politics
Spirituality
Climate Change
Politics
Birdfeeding
Gardening
Philosophical Questions: Morals
Audio
Entertainment
Birdfeeding
Crafts
Today's Adventures
Wildlife
Moment of Silence: Anthony Head
Birdfeeding
Friday Five
Follow Friday 6-5-26: My Chemical Romance
Nature
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Unsold Poems for the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
Cyberspace Theory
History
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
Conservation

Food has 24 comments. Poem: "Walnut Park" has 46 comments. Early Humans has 22 comments. Safety has 85 comments.


"Let's Go on This Journey Together" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. It needs $151 to be complete. Linus struggles to deal with a broken arm.

"No Faster or Firmer Friendships" belongs to Polychrome Heroics and needs $35 to be complete. Josué reads a funny poem to Maria-Vera.


The weather has been hot and humid here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of cardinals, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel. Red-winged blackbirds are singing overhead; I guess some are staying in our yard for the summer, which is nice for birdsong. I've seen at least 3 bats swooping around the yard. :D Currently blooming: pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, marigolds, honeysuckle, snapdragons, lantana, million bells, blue lobelia, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, fan flowers, wild chives, mock orange, firecracker plant, pineapple sage, yucca, Asiatic lilies, daylilies. Green fruit: blackberries. Ripe fruit: peas, mulberries, black raspberries.

1950s Marriage Family Nostalgia

A majority of Americans believe our country’s culture and way of life have “mostly changed for the worse” since the 1950s, according to the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2025 American Values Survey. That includes 55% of white people, 53% of Black people and 57% of Latinos.


Well, it's had a lot of ups and downs. Some things have changed for the better, others for the worse -- and indeed, some of the improvements led to disasters in other areas. I would say it has peaked, as we are now losing some hard-fought gains but we haven't gotten back things we lost from earlier.

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This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "Change" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo.


"The Art of Morphological Derivation"


There are many ways
to create new words.

Morphological derivation
is the fine art of changing
one part of speech into
another part of speech
to devise a new word.

Verbs become adverbs,
nouns become verbs, and
so on around the wheel.

Of all tools, beyond
stone knives and
bearskins, beyond
even fire itself, words
are the tools that made
primate ancestors human.

They are the most versatile
of all tools, turning into
something new at need.

It's a strange process,
but creation is like that.

We can refer to this as
morphological derivation,
but it's quicker and clearer to say:

"Verbing weirds language."

* * *

Notes:

Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- or -ness. For example, unhappy and happiness derive from the root word happy.

"Verbing weirds language."
-- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

We've reached the end of scheduled themes for the Poetry Fishbowl project. It's time to brainstorm some new themes! These are a few that I've jotted down earlier, ones that I've thought up or people have suggested, to give you an idea what kind of stuff might be suitable:

* Activism
* Climate Change
* Fantasy and Science Fiction Professions
* Help That's Actually Helpful
* Hold My Coat
* Hope
* Oh HELL no!
* Squeaky Toys
* Weirder Than That

What other themes would you like to see me write about? What would you like to buy? Suggest them in a comment below this post.

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This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from fuzzyred. It also fills the "Pin" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the Big One and Shiv threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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3 Teens Win Global Earth Prize for Inventing Tamarind Powder That Easily Removes Microplastics

Their grand prize-winning invention is called Plas-Stick, and used powdered tamarind seed as the base for an all-natural microplastic clumping agent. After a short agitation period, the clumped microplastic-tamarind mass can be removed with nothing more than a magnet.

Notably, Plas-Stick is the first-ever Global Winner of The Earth Prize from India.

Designed for use in shared water containers, the biodegradable powder binds invisible plastic particles into visible clumps that can then be easily removed with a handheld magnet, offering a simple and low-cost alternative to complex filtration systems.


Gizmology for the win! \o/ Extra credit for sustainable ingredients.

This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Dreamwidth user Dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Growth" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.


"Lichengloss"
noun: the painfully slow struggle to learn a foreign language


For some learners,
a new language comes
as quickly and easily
as water flowing.

For most, it is not
so simple or swift.

It is a labor of
endless hours
and days, grasping
at ideas that slip
through fingers
like so much mist.

The knowledge is
hard-won yet halting.

Every word learned
must be maintained,
practiced, lest it
fade and be lost.

Every new twist of
grammar seeks
to bind them.

Language lies
over the tongue,
wrinkled and strange,
stretching itself.

It grows as
slowly as lichen
covering a stone

but nevertheless it grows.

This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Dreamwidth user Greghousesgf. It also fills the "Clothes" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. It has been sponsored by janetmiles.

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