What's your opinion on language evolving?

I used to be a purist, preferring to resist words acquiring new meanings, and even more firmly resisting the emergence of new meanings to replace perfectly good existing words.

Not sure what I mean? Well, how about "Biweekly," through decades of misuse, coming to mean both "every two weeks" and "twice a week?"





And what say you to the word "ask" as a hip new consultant-speak synonym for "request?"





While I admit I don't use these words in their new configurations if I'm being thoughtful, I think it's not only pointless to resists, it's counterproductive to go all grammar-nerd on my coworkers when they use words in a nonstandard way. There are two reasons

First, the art of creating new words is an old, respected discipline. Shakespeare made a habit of it, and lexicographers have been appropriating bits of other languages to define foodstuffs, and articles of clothing, and anything else for which Shakespeare failed to sculpt a term.

Second, and as a career technologist I should have internalized this decades ago, we keep inventing things for which there are no terms. For decades, advancements in technology have created a need for new words to describe new things. From radar and lasers to animatronics and nanobots, words keep emerging to meet the newness in our lives.

And what has this to do with poetry? Well, only that contemporary poetry shoudln't be afraid to leverage contemporary language. I've had folks comment on what I thought were pretty mundane words (phone? photon?) that they thought didn't belong in poems. I disagree. We should fill our poems with the language of our lives.

And if our lives involve cybersecurity, then we can talk about the malware our operating systems have to manage.

The reference is Robert Frost. That is likely obvious to folks who have navigated here from the poetry lane of the roadmap of my life. But there are other paths "grassy and wanting wear" that may have led you here. Did we meet at a technical conference? An audition? Did we share a stand at the last American Accordionists Association Festival and Contest, or a row at the last middle school winter concert? Were you a student in my religious education class or my project management workshop? Perhaps you commented on my New York Mets jersey, or my penguin tie, or my college sweatshirt - and if this last was you, I have to say No, they were not this nice when I attended.

You may have joined me on this road before. The rusting shells of blogs past lie just at the edge of sight, overgrown with time and busyness. They are partially filled with ideas and intentions, and now serve best as places to pick up a quick though as we move along this new road. And where are we headed?

The topics here will be those about which I write poems, which means it could be mostly anything. Likely, we'll find ourselves deeper into subjects which Facebook and Twitter don't provide space for exploration. It's not likely to get loud, even less likely to get controversial, but very likely to bring in ideas from other disciplines: science, engineering, parenting, music, history, and any number of other things my overactive curiosity brings close to my poetry.

We will move the conversation forward approximately monthly, with shorter bits of flotsam available on social media in the interim. I hope not to let either of us down, and I look forward to the journey. Please; you come, too.