Q: What is your favorite word?
A: That’s a tough one. If I’m going on the meaning of words, I guess it would have to be love, since there is no point to life without it. But I have a deep affection for the English language, love words for their sound and feel in the mouth. Words that sound like what they mean, such as undulate, haunting, sassy, poignant, and vicious are favorites. Poetically invented words like one I used in my story, moonshadowed, are always fun. I like ugly words that fit just right too, like muck or gutta-percha. Right now corvid (not to be confused with Covid!) is probably my favorite—I’ve written a string of poems, a short and a flash on crows and birds of the corvid family.
Sharmon Gazaway’s story “Autumn’s Come Undone”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 23 April 2021.
Subscribe now for e-mail updates!
