Day 24 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2019

Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo suggestion: “Today’s (optional) prompt is to write a poem that . . . is inspired by a reference book. Locate a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia, open it at random, and consider the two pages in front of you to be your inspirational playground for the day. Maybe a strange word will catch your eye, or perhaps the mishmash of information will provide you with the germ of a poem.” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “For today’s prompt, take the phrase ‘Complete (blank),’ replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then write your poem. Possible titles include: ‘Complete Best Day I Ever Had,” ‘Complete Guide to Writing Poems,’ ‘Completely Wrong Way,’ and ‘Completed Set.’ ” To merge the prompts, I looked up complete in a thesaurus, which was cheating, a little — I didn’t use a random page but rather the spread that had that word. Today, I’ve got an abecedarian list poem for you, a kind of mini-thesaurus of words related to complete in its different guises: to finish (verb), total (adjective), and so on. I used my dad’s Roget’s Thesaurus, inscribed on the inside cover with Martin Gotera, Dec. 8, 1959 in my mom's handwriting, or printing, actually. As much as it pleases me to use his book, which I remember seeing and even using as a child, it did mean that more recent usages are not there. So while the majority of the words are below are from those two pages, I did have to go out on the internet also. Complete Vocab arrangement, abundance balance, blend chock-full, combination, cap-a-pie deliver the goods eke out fait accompli, fulfill go the whole hog hook, line, and sinker integration, inclusive jam-packed knock off lock, stock, and barrel mass, mixture, merge native, nature out-and-out perfect, put the lid on quite, quintessential replete, ripe synthesis thorough, total universal validate, veritable whole nine yards exhaust, execute yield zealous, zip up —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]         Looking up complete in Papa’s thesaurus         (click on this image to see it larger) Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don’t find the word “comments” in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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