You might see some (not too many, I promise) big words floating around in this post today! Why? Because of those quirky holidays that I like to look at each week, and it is Big Words Day on the 21st of April! While I normally never remember to use big words, and even when I try, I can’t remember enough of them, sometimes they are useful, and at other times it is simply fun to use them. Today, their use is purely for fun 🙂

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Poetic Sundays: Fitting New Big Words in Great Old Tunes

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a poem informed by musical phrasing or melody, that employs some form of soundplay (rhyme, meter, assonance, alliteration) with Theodore Roethke’s poem, “In Evening Air” in mind. One way to approach this is to think of a song you know and then basically write new lyrics that fit the original song’s rhythm/phrasing.

A few melodies came to my mind, including a couple of my dad’s favorites (and I remain utterly perplexed as to how he became acquainted with them) – Tony Brent’s The Game of Love and Nancy Sinatra’s Summer Wine. But I couldn’t figure out how to work those, so I ended up with a perennial family favorite that never failed to elicit a smile: let us see if you can deduce it from this modest endeavor of mine. The song is linked following my (ir)rendition of it!

And as April 21st aligns with the commemoration of yet another peculiar holiday—Big Word Day—my humble endeavor below endeavors to include a compilation of sesquipedalian terms (or those approximating their grandeur) as well. 🙂

Note: not too many though, never fear!

My Endeavor

The Spectral Laundry Plight
Dear Mommy, send me money
Laundry here costs a pretty penny
It’s been raining—drenching daily
Now the grounds are all gross and gravy

I bet you’re thinking, “it’s just a drizzle”
But oh Mommy, there’s no sign it’ll fizzle
Wore bell bottoms—fully forgetting
That the forecast screamed it would be wetting

And the dryer, it refused to dry
I know you want to, but don’t say the word “why”
There’s a rumor going around
The laundry room has phantasmal presence unbound.

So mommy dearest, here’s what I hear
They purloin your socks, the clothes you hold dear
The reason I am telling you this
My Brandy Melville apparel’s gone amiss!

Please, mommy, now send me money!
Please, mommy, need to do laundry!
Else, Mommy, I will have to skip classes,
’Cause I am also… out of pajama passes!

Sweet mommy, my dearest matron
Sweet mommy, love you without cessation,
Please send me money this very day
Though I know you just sent some yesterday.

Darling mother, my esteemed guardian
Can’t you perceive it, it’s quite apparent
I’m truly in a precarious plight
I wish you would dispatch the funds pronto – last night!

Mommy never mind, my laundry’s done,
The phantoms assisted, and I have had fun!
The office, you see, reimbursed me,
But can you send me money… for some coffee!?
~Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Your Guess?

And if you like guessing games, and would like to guess at bookish anagrams, check out my M post

Recently

On My Blog and On the Home Front

These posts made their way out into the world on my blog this past week:

• The Question Poem and Quirky Quiddities: On Questioning Magic
• P is for the Powerful Puente and Performing Poetry in Porsches!?
• The Opposite of the Otherworldly? and One More
• Neologisms or New Words and Whole New Worlds!
• M is for the Marianne and More Magic Mmmms
• Love the Limacros and Lovely Lines of Laughter
• Sunday Scribblings #219: The Silence of the Tiles: Scrabble!

On the home front, well, with the whole family away for a few days for various reasons, I have realized how hard it is to cook just for one person, which means any meal I make is lasting me for three days at least 🙂

Upcoming

On My Blog & Homefront

Will be continuing my poetry lesson plans as planned and the NaPoWriMo prompts as well. And if the weather is nice, then some gardening (for it has had its ups and downs these few days here).

This Week’s Celebrations

Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)

• Literary birthdays this week of April include: Alistair Maclean and Charlotte Brontë on the 21st; Janet Evanovich, Louise Glück, Henry Fielding, and Vladimir Nabokov on the 22nd; William Shakespeare on the 23rd; Sue Grafton and Robert Penn Warren on the 24th; James Fenton on 25th; Lisa Unger 26th; August Wilson, Cecil Day Lewis, Mary Wollstonecraft 27th
• It is Big Word Day on the 21st, so sesquipedalians, rejoice!
• The 23rd of April is International English Language Day, World Book Night, and Talk Like Shakespeare Day.
• Followed by National Library Workers Day on the 25th
• April 26th is Independent Bookstore Day
• While the 27th is National Tell a Story Day and Eeyore’s Birthday
• National Great Poetry Reading Day is on the 28th

Foodie Celebrations

• The 21st is for enjoying National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day
• Followed by National Jelly Bean Day on April 22nd. Which is your favorite Jelly Bean flavor?
• April 23rd is National Cherry Cheesecake Day and National English Muffin Day
• National Zucchini Bread Day on the 25th of April
• While the 26th of April is National Pretzel Day
• April 27th is National Gummi Bear Day

Other Celebrations

• It is National Kindergarten Day and World Creativity and Innovation Day on the 21st of April
• April 22nd is International Mother Earth Day
• The 23rd observes National Picnic Day and National Take a Chance Day as well as Trails Day, which means you could even take your picnic further on a hike!
• It is National Skipping Day and Denim Day on the 24th.
• April 25th celebrates World Penguin Day, National Telephone Day, and  International Girls In ICT Day
• The 26th happens to be World Intellectual Property Day, National Audubon Day, and National Richter Scale Day. It is also Get Organized Day
• April 27th is World Tapir Day  and World Healing Day. It is also National Go Birding Day

Related Reads and Such: For a Love of Big Words and Small!

• Ten Books for People Who Love Words and Language
• Wordsmithery and A Little Wordy are games for those who love words!
• That Should Be a Word
• Other-Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely from Around the World

Wrapping Up My Big Words Sunday Scribblings

Dear reader, hope you enjoyed this big words post! Do share your most favorite (or feared or unfavorite) big words with me.

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon. Also linking up to A-Z, Blogchatter, UBC, NaPoWriMo (on Sundays, not to A-Z, Blogchatter)

And you can find all my A-Z+ posts (this year and previous years’ as well) here:

A to Z Challenge Posts