diVERSES reKINDLED: In Conversation With

Faith and fear, extraordinary and abnormal: English is blessed with words that have the same definition.

The former pair is a belief something will occur before it occurs. The latter is beyond the usual.

Yet, to use these words interchangeably would create all kinds of problems in actual conversations. This is due to their associations.

In our Craft Write workshop led by Denise R. Ervin, poets were guided through precision in word choice. Picking words intentionally creates cohesion or tension and irony. To do so without awareness is reckless.

Though we like to think ourselves rational, we start with emotion. The first decision we make with a painting is decide if we like it. We taste the wine when we see the price tag, well before the bottle’s opened.

For people who like rules and logical systems, this part of communication is challenging. I see it daily with my communication students who are interested in pronunciation. The reason they have an accent isn’t their clarity and precision—in fact, the clarity and precision is what gives them an accent. Communication isn’t about giving the listener a completed, logically fit puzzle. Instead, communication is giving the listener just enough pieces that they can finish on their own.

There is freedom in realizing the emotion comes first. By knowing what I want my reader or listener to feel, I can play up my word choice, my grammar, my voice, my body language. Sometimes, I’m not really angry at my kid when there’s a problem, but I know that to stop the behavior, I have to appear angry—firm my voice, tense my jaw a bit more, lower my pitch.

To not do so makes us more reactionary, not in control of the direction we send our listeners or reader on.

However, if I know what I want you to feel, I can pull out all the stops: the right colors, the right textures, the right adjectives, the right story, instead of arriving halfway there by chance

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Full conversation with Denise R. Ervin curated by poet Geoff Anderson: https://youtu.be/f1nubivAEG8