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Notes About The Poem

Background: OK I admit it. I fell in love with diphthong the first time I pronounced it in my mind; the first time I saw it on a page; the first time Spell-checker corrected its spelling! A diphthong is a sound derived from two vowels, starting with one vowel sound, and flowing onto another. For example: the 'oy' sound in 'oil'. The word 'Diphthong' is derived from the Greek word 'diphthongos' which means "having two sounds." I especially like the concept of a pair together, a duo, a couple, but sounding one after the other to create something new - a combined sound, made by sounding the vowels, one after the other, to create a new sound.

Listen to poem:

Diphthong Souls

Diphthong you fake, you charlatan.
'ph' and 'th' be not vowels!
What strange bed fellows in ensemble
A Greek tongue twister to boot!

But I love you, all the same.
Lovely sound,
Love at first sight.
Your meaning so evocative of couples, partners, pairs in harmony.
Vowels apart, but sounding one after the other, a duo performance.
Separate identity retained, but embellished and combined to create a new sound.

A Diphthong is like writers and how their readers respond.
The writer, conducts a choir of readers with vowel sound voices,
Each idea read, evokes multiple responses,
With new thoughts and sounds conceived, one after the other.
Each reader in harmony, a duo with writer, improvising with the writer's lead.
It is a diphthong concert of souls, jamming together.

wordsfree verse

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