Words like this is a passion project by two word-nerds. We like words like bombast. Or fluvial–that’s another good word.
We made words like this because poetry has a lot of nice words, but ‘poetry’ has a reputation amongst non-poetry people. It reminds of us stuff we had to study in school, which, largely, sucked. For most of us regular people, poetry is for elbow-patched professors in mahogany-lined offices swirling snifters of brandy whilst discussing literary techniques and poetic devices. We reckon that’s a bit shit. Shit is a good word, too, when it’s used for the right reason.
See, there’s a simple joy in discovering the images and sounds that are created by the words we use everyday, and getting back in touch with how they make us feel when we say them. Words like bellicose and cavernous are fun to say. Slit or moist, less fun, especially in that order.
Words like this presents beautiful passages of poetry in a beautiful, contemporary way. There will be no use of technical terms like ‘personification’ or ‘quatrains’ here. No lengthy analysis or historical perspective of the poetry or the poets who wrote them. Sure, context can be important in helping to understand a poem, but that removes from the visceral or primal (two other good words) response that we have to hearing our language spoken out loud or in our minds. Poetry is really just about words like this.
A short note about copyright
All poems presented here are for educational purposes only. To spread the love of words and poetry to the people. We don’t make money from this. There are no ads, no merchandise to purchase. We don’t make money from referring you to buying a book that we link to. In fact, we’re hoping the opposite will be true. We want to share poems that make us laugh, think, dance, and cry. By presenting a wide variety of poetry, we’re hoping that words like this may provide a way into poetry for everyone, and even make the poet a few dollars in royalties along the way.
If you’re the poet or the copyright owner of a poem that we’ve featured here, first of all, thank you. Thank you for enriching our lives in the way that you have. If you found it here, it means it has had an effect on us at words like this. It moved us in some way, and we’re forever grateful. However, as writers ourselves, we understand that, at the end of the day, it is your work. If you’d like to have it removed (or maybe replaced by a small excerpt rather than be reproduced in full?) please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’ll act within 7 days of your request, after all, we’re just a couple of people with day jobs like everybody else.