"Incarnadine Seas"

I've always loved words.  Sitting in 'big church' with the adults as a little child, I distinctly remember the enaging missionary who used "arrested" to describe how he was taken by something...not put in jail.  My first recollection of the power and versatility of words...

From there, I've always wanted to know more.  After all, words are far better than stickers, or baseball cards, or recipes, or even shoes.  They make the mundane magical, they are always in style, and they always fit!  *And, an added benefit (as if I need to sell YOU on how great words are) is that they are the key to rich, meaningful writing.

Last night, I began flipping through the bounty of new professional books I received from my district.  Like a silver gilded leaf, Georgia Heard's "Incarnadine Seas" from Writing Toward Home landed serendipitously in my lap.  In this piece bearing a Shakespearian moniker, Heard talks about the wonder of keeping a word notebook --- "words like shiny red tomatoes, picked from the vine, and ripening..."  Beautiful.  She describes the notebook as a "cup of possibility on days where I'm thirsty for words." 

Duly noted.

Gwendolyn Brooks says, "COLLECT WORDS!"  So, the words I'm collecting right now....

• grimalkin --- an old, female cat
• amalgam --- combination of two or more components
• lucidity --- easily understood, intelligent
• nebulous --- hazy, vague, indistinct

What are your favorites?  Share a few snippets from your word page with LWT readers... 

Write on,
b