After Wordsmithing by Genevieve Chornenki

March 28, 2022
Poem name: After Wordsmithing Poet name: Genevieve Chornenki Poem begins: My long well-sharpened pencil’s scraping cross the page Where letters spill, And there’s a coffee cup I didn’t fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Light function words I left in anyhow, For I embrace what modern poets disavow. Determiners, conjunctions can sit right, Those hints of grammar wrought with ease by Frost Whose apple-picking poem imparts delight And tallies tiny words at minor cost. I scanned his poem for prepositions too Then took out all the function words I found. It weakened, and its walls fell to the floor. But I was glad To see how it revived were I to add What once it had. An exercise that seems to underscore Most cherished rules are dogma, nothing more. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Genevieve Chornenki Genevieve Chornenki is an emerging poet intent on liberating herself from informational writing and paid work as a mediator and arbitrator. She has studied under poet Catherine Graham and novelist Kim Echlin, and is currently being mentored by League member Allan Briesmaster. In 2021 Don’t Lose Sight, Genevieve’s lyrical meditation on eyesight, was published by Iguana Books. Genevieve holds a Certificate in Creative Writing from University of Toronto (2020) and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University (2017). She is editor-in-chief of the Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal. Visit genevievechornenki.com and follow her on Instagram @chornenkigenevieve.