Playing with Language: For the Poet & Writer

Tucked away in a book from 1986, I found this wonderful exploration of how a poet forms. The author notes that it happens, in part, when we “splash about in language for the sheer pleasure of it….” (The Poet’s Art, M.L. Rosenthal, p.38)

Now I love this idea, because it doesn’t imply that we need to become language experts. We’re simply splashing! And that means there’s no particular need to be formal, to learn anything, or to create a special outcome. It can be even more fun to splash about in a foreign language, where the possibilities for discovery compound.

If you know me, you know that I love to splash about in French. Recently, after being a bit discouraged that I may never gain fluency, I was renewed in my desire to just stay in touch with the language. So I started copying out French poems.

In the midst of a Robert Desnos poem, I came upon the word plieraient, which I discovered means would bend. Before leaving the word, I splashed about with it. Wait! A plié in ballet is when we bend our knees. And, oh! The pliers I used yesterday to bend some wire. Could that be a form of the same word? Confession: I’m not always pliant in nature. (Another possible connection!)

Creativity experts note that those who temporarily live in a foreign country, even for just a few years, well… they become far more creative than those who don’t.

Maybe your life isn’t designed for uprooting to Istanbul. But it needn’t be in order for you to gain some of the benefits of seeing life through a different lens: linguistically. And, as Rosenthal suggests, splashing about in words of any kind can help you form as a poet.

Here are five fun ways to get splashing…

5 Fun Ways to Play with Language

1.

Mango Languages

I love to dip into French via Mango languages. Mango is a fun language-learning program which I have free access to through our local library. Check your library system. You might have free access to Mango, too!

2.

Shows on Netflix or YouTube

While French is my darling language, I’ve also been splashing about in Turkish, Italian, and Korean. Once Netflix understands that you’re open to shows in foreign languages, the recommendations start rolling. A few favorites I’ve returned to:

Call My Agent (French)
Instanbul Encyclopedia (Turkish & French)
The Law According to Lidia Poët (Italian)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Korean)
Agency (Korean)

3.

Music on Spotify and YouTube

When I don’t want to give much thought to my splashing about, I turn to music. I really do roam all over the world with these, dipping into more languages than I can count. Sometimes dance is included. Which I also love.

Of course, French is a favorite!

4.

Small Translations

When we were working on How to Write a Form Poem with Tania Runyan, we wanted to include a Basho poem, but since we wanted a version that didn’t require permission, my daughter Sara and I turned our hand to translation. What fun! The whole process we followed is worth a post of its own. Suffice it to say, we discovered that the existing translations we located had avoided one little detail: the poet was annoyed and used a word that borders on humorous-crass! While we didn’t make our poem translation crass, we did give it a slight edge that other translators hadn’t. And our knowledge of Basho’s haiku was broadened.

Small translations can be as tiny as translating a single verse of a poem from another language. Remember, you’re simply splashing.

5.

Children’s Books

Your local library is a great place to start with this. We’ve also discovered some excellent resources online. If, for instance, you want to play with an Asian language, check out Let’s Read, where you can download children’s stories (and choose the language you’d like them to appear in). Or, for Spanish and French, visit Free Kids Books (Spanish) and French. The Free Kids Books site also has Farsi, German, and Hindi if you want to take them for a spin!

Poetry Prompt

Splash about in a foreign language and find some words that look or sound good to you. Find out what they mean in a dictionary or online. Then put them in a poem in a way that we can understand without us having to look up the word or words.

Sample Poem

Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps

One swallow. One
hirondelle, watercolor
brown. Does not make.
Ne fait pas. The Spring.
Le printemps.

Nor one seed, a field
of rippling golden wheat.
Or one drop of white-blue rain
the weep of April.
But one glance from you—

a flock, a field, a flood!

—L.L. Barkat

Photo by Harpreet Singh, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.

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L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of seven books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.

5 Fun Ways to Play with Language!