Be wary of connotations as well as denotations of words and phrases such as “Here I sit,” and “Morning After”
I almost called today’s Firestarter exercise “the morning after” but there are some negative connotations to that now. Thanks abortion pill– you forever stole 2 words. Which brought immediately to mind how “Here I sit” should be removed from the poet’s dictionary… well, strike that. They should be filed under the heading “DANGER WILL ROBINSON!” because no matter what your intentions, the next word that will pop into the reader’s head is “brokenhearted. ” and then they’ll think of bathroom stalls and poop and your reader’s mind is definitely in the wrong place. Well, depending on how crappy the poem is. YEAH! That’s right. A pun. But seriously, as an editor I’ve read the phrase “here I sit” in at least five different pieces, and every time I finished the rhyme. Anyway, be careful when writing for those distinct, familiar phrases that call to mind very specific things like products (slogans), jokes, other poems… while an intention allusion is a completely different story, sometimes even common phraseology can take your reader, at least on one level, away from your poem entirely as the mind continues “came to sh*t / but only farted” despite the only similarity is “Here I sit.” Ya dig? Basically what I’m saying is, use your words with extreme caution.