Pier [Noun.]

• A raised platform built from the shore out over water, supported on piles; used to secure, or provide access to shipping; a jetty.
• A similar structure, especially at a seaside resort, used to provide entertainment.

Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Tier (one who ties), but tier.
– Gerard Nolst Trenité, The Chaos

Rapier [Adj.]

• Extremely sharp.
• Cutting smarts or keen wit.

‘Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Tier (one who ties), but tier.’
– Gerard Nolst Trenité, The Chaos

On Beauty in Retrospect

“The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they’re seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?”

– André Gide

On Genuine Poetry

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

– T.S. Eliot

Impossible to Tell

Slow dulcimer, gavotte and bow, in autumn,
Bashō and his friends go out to view the moon;
In summer, gasoline rainbow in the gutter,

The secret courtesy that courses like ichor
Through the old form of the rude, full-scale joke,
Impossible to tell in writing. “Bashō”

He named himself, “Banana Tree”: banana
After the plant some grateful students gave him,
Maybe in appreciation of his guidance

Threading a long night through the rules and channels
Of their collaborative linking-poem
Scored in their teacher’s heart: live, rigid, fluid

Inveigle [Verb.]

• To convert, convince, or win over with flattery or wiles.
• To obtain through guile or cunning.

‘Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,
Make the latter rhyme with eagle.’
– Gerard Nolst Trenité, The Chaos

Wont [Noun.]

Habitual way of doing things; practice, custom.

‘Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.’
– Gerard Nolst Trenité, The Chaos

Cowper [Proper Noun.]

An English surname, a variant of Cooper.

‘Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,
Cow, but Cowper, some and home.’
– Gerard Nolst Trenité, The Chaos