Today I challenge you to write a "mix-and-match" poem in which you mingle fancy vocabulary with distinctly un-fancy words. First, spend five minutes writing a list of overly poetic words – words that you think just sound too high-flown to really be used by anyone in everyday speech. Examples might be vesper, heliotrope, or excelsior. Now spend five minutes writing words that you might use or hear every day, but which seem too boring or quotidian to be in a poem. Examples might be garbage disposal, doggy bag, bathroom. Now mix and match examples from both of your lists into a single poem. Hopefully you'll end up with a poem that makes the everyday seem poetic, and which keeps your poetic language grounded. Happy writing!

             
                       In the dead of night

La Lune silhouettes the kestrels perched on the rooftops

Sounds of the gaita, floating, eurythmic, sailing from the alcazar

A bibliophile gazes through his window, a Bichon Frise barks incessantly

A gaggle of washer women, tattling gossip, deterging the workers clothes, hurriedly gather their laden baskets

They come in droves, some lumbering, some with purpose to the omphalos

Minacious noctambulists with terror stricken eyes

Those who have made it to the safety of indoors watch helplessly,

Others shield their children's ears and bury their heads under thick blankets

Limb from limb, they tear each other apart

The town square runs a crimson river

Piercing screams and tortuous cries of torment resonate and infuse with melodic gaita

A bibliophile flashes his rubigious smile, then sings as the Bichon Frise howls in accompaniment