driseog

This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Growth" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.


"Lichengloss"
noun: the painfully slow struggle to learn a foreign language


For some learners,
a new language comes
as quickly and easily
as water flowing.

For most, it is not
so simple or swift.

It is a labor of
endless hours
and days, grasping
at ideas that slip
through fingers
like so much mist.

The knowledge is
hard-won yet halting.

Every word learned
must be maintained,
practiced, lest it
fade and be lost.

Every new twist of
grammar seeks
to bind them.

Language lies
over the tongue,
wrinkled and strange,
stretching itself.

It grows as
slowly as lichen
covering a stone

but nevertheless it grows.

This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from fuzzyred. It also fills the "Pin" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the Big One and Shiv threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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This poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "Change" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo.


"The Art of Morphological Derivation"


There are many ways
to create new words.

Morphological derivation
is the fine art of changing
one part of speech into
another part of speech
to devise a new word.

Verbs become adverbs,
nouns become verbs, and
so on around the wheel.

Of all tools, beyond
stone knives and
bearskins, beyond
even fire itself, words
are the tools that made
primate ancestors human.

They are the most versatile
of all tools, turning into
something new at need.

It's a strange process,
but creation is like that.

We can refer to this as
morphological derivation,
but it's quicker and clearer to say:

"Verbing weirds language."

* * *

Notes:

Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- or -ness. For example, unhappy and happiness derive from the root word happy.

"Verbing weirds language."
-- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

1950s Marriage Family Nostalgia

A majority of Americans believe our country’s culture and way of life have “mostly changed for the worse” since the 1950s, according to the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2025 American Values Survey. That includes 55% of white people, 53% of Black people and 57% of Latinos.


Well, it's had a lot of ups and downs. Some things have changed for the better, others for the worse -- and indeed, some of the improvements led to disasters in other areas. I would say it has peaked, as we are now losing some hard-fought gains but we haven't gotten back things we lost from earlier.

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So far, nobody has bought anything from the June Poetry Fishbowl.  :(  If you're still shopping, now's the time to make your selections. 

Single women are buying more houses. The men they are dating are not responding well.

Female home owners report feeling stuck between men’s contradictory expectations – they are told to be independent, but not assume the breadwinner role.


Bluntly put, if a man has a problem with a female homeowner, he is not looking for an equal partner -- he is looking for a long-term prostitute/housekeeper. A female homeowner is unlikely to want that position, so she might as well dump his ass immediately. She can do better.

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The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights

Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won't condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on "free and fair elections."

Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations.


Look at the list of things removed from the report. These are all things the government is doing, intends to do, or approves of other people doing. As I've said before, you don't have rights, you have privileges.  Of course, when people don't have rights, they tend not to respect the law or government much, as those don't protect them.  So they're much less likely to defend those institutions, and might jump on an alternative if it became available.  That shoots your national security in both feet.

TL;DR -- don't trust anything the American government says.  Seek reliable news sources.

‘Happiness is not just about GDP’: ambitious plan or utopia?

Some will question its credibility. But the alternative future to the one imagined in the World Justice Report is far more bleak.

Academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival.


It's good to lay out a detailed plan. It gives people something to talk about, even if the actual path turns out differently. Having several plans to compare is better, so this is a useful addition.

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Today is partly sunny, humid, and hot.

I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I spread a bag of potting soil over the telephone pole garden.

My partner Doug has mowed paths around the yard, so we walked to see those.  Progress.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed black hollyhock and 'Indian Spring Mixed Colors' hollyhock in the telephone pole garden.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed 'Hopi Landrace' and 'Autumn Beauty' sunflowers in the telephone pole garden.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a pair of cardinals and a mourning dove in the forest garden.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed my developing 'Summer of Love Landrace' and 'Evening Sun Mixed Colors' sunflowers in the telephone pole garden.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed 'State Fair Mix' zinnias and Charleston Food Forest zinnias in the telephone pole garden.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed my developing 'Shirley' zinnias, 'Mammoth Excelsior Mix' stocks, scarlet sage, and 'Knee High Fragrant Mix' sweet peas in the telephone pole garden.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed 'Bloody Mary' nasturtium, 'Tall Mix' centaurea, 'Stars and Stripes' mirabilis, and 'Select Superbissima Mix' painted tongue  in the telephone pole garden.  That's the end of the rows.  I still want to sow Shithouse Marigolds around the edges, and it needs to be watered.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I sowed Shithouse Marigolds around the edges of the telephone pole garden, then watered the whole thing.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I watered plants in the new picnic table garden.

I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 6/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Fireflies are coming out.

I am done for the night.

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

How important are morals in a healthy society? What are the most important morals for citizens to have?

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