Verbs v. nouns
Nouns…
they’re dead things; names
you give to things to render them
immobile; to make them yours, your very own; fit for nothing
except scrapheaps, museums, dictionaries, armchairs;
but they make you feel good;
you have control over their world;
you don’t have to think about them any more;
they’re all locked up safe in your collecting-box,
the noun for which is head:
you can sound important with nouns:
this government’s raft of measures
for fiscal stimulation of the economy
but verbs… ah, verbs!
you can’t own them, push them about,
collect them, be important about them;
they own themselves;
they’re outdoor words: going about their
lawful business, doing what they're best at,
measuring their own life as they work;
adapting themselves to what needs to be done
which nouns can’t do without a committee
and then it’s too late; happy
to be themselves, being; even
being while they’re doing.. don't you wish
you were a verb?
Nature – (that’s a verb, by the way,
not a noun) – is all verbs; evolution
is a verb (not a theory):
DNA’s a verb – you can’t own it
like a noun…it doesn’t even
want to own you…
so, be a child – put your boots on,
run, splash, shout look at all those verbs;
how bright the world, what fun,
nothing to put in your pocket to take home
(or if you do, it’ll change to a noun, your noun,
in your pocket, in your drawer, gathering dust:
verbs don’t have the time to gather dust…)
verbs are for observing; verbs are for
seeing for the first time; wow! Verbs are for
inventors, explorers, tree-climbing,
coming home after a day of verb-watching
tired and looking forward to tomorrow
and sleeping soundly, maybe even
thanking, laughing, giving, living;
God is a verb.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Related quotes
The Grammar Lesson
A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"
of and with are prepositions. The's
an article, a can's a noun,
a noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.
A can can roll - or not. What isn't was
or might be, might meaning not yet known.
"Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"
is present tense. While words like our and us
are pronouns - i.e. it is moldy, they are icky brown.
A noun's a thing; a verb's the thing it does.
Is is a helping verb. It helps because
filled isn't a full verb. Can's what our owns
in "Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz."
See? There's almost nothing to it. Just
memorize these rules...or write them down!
A noun's a thing, a verb's the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.
poem by Steve Kowit
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Panchadasi Chapter Two
O Lord, You are my own self..
remind me, now, that my own self is You..
and that’s about the measure of it:
if I were to speak of You, or praise You,
I would speak verbs, and nouns, and sentences;
remind me, Lord, that every verb
speaks of, and yet hides,
Your Creating, here and now;
that every noun speaks of, and hides
the single every name of You;
that every sentence describes, hides,
Your Creation and its beauty;
so take me, know me, Lord, to be
Your silent worshipper and friend
in the stillness of the temple of OurSelf.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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The Noun Song
There are many types of different nouns
Plurals, possessives, and compounds
But today we are doing specific nouns
Listen first then sing it around!
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
Listen first then sing along
Listen first then sing along
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
Come on guys let's sing along
Come on guys let's sing along
Possessives are nouns that belong to you
Let's see what you can do
The more you use them the more you got
So come on now give it a shot!
FOR PLURAL:
The students' don't have any homework!
Apostrophe after s or it doesn't work!
FOR SINGULAR:
The student's dog ate his book!
S after apostrophe hey just look!
Dude this isn't a lie,
So come on now give it a try!
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
Listen first then sing along
Listen first then sing along
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
We'll sing it all day long
Come on guys let's sing along
Two words together is a contraction
Let me see, What's your reaction?
What's, let's, don't, can't,
You can do it,
YES YOU CAN! ! !
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
Come on guys just sing along
Come on guys just sing along
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
You can't get it wrong
So come on now just sing along!
When you're all by yourself
And you need more than one
Add an -s or -es
Then you'll find someone
And that is...
A PLURAL NOUN!
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
Come on just sing along
Come on just sing along
This is the noun song
This is the noun song
Come on guys let's sing along
Come on guys let's sing along
This is the noun song
We sang along!
poem by Mystykka Mysterious
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Selfe's Grammar: a sonnet in the style of George Herbert
O Lord: my dearmost Selfe – why need I name Thee?
Whom I need not call - forever near;
O Lord: my wholest Selfe – what grammar speak Thee,
who art Word and Speech, and Mouth and Ear;
Thou art not circumscribed by any Noun,
that any but Thyself hath speech to say;
nor Pronoun Thou – who art both I and Thee
and He and She and every It and They;
All Verbs Thou art; and every verb, Thy act;
and yet, Thy Stillness knows no verb that moves;
no Adjective may praise Thee as Thou art;
no Adverb tell how Thy Love constant proves;
O Lord, my whole dear Selfe: my silent prayer
may speak the louder; Thy sweet Stillness share.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Something Understandable
in your busy life
there is no time for
a puzzle
and so to make things
easier for you
i am simplifying words
i am giving you
all nouns and
adjectives
i am setting aside
all the verbs
like a still painting
you may stop
and find yourself
there
immobile
calm and still
stuffed.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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What We See As...
What we see as nouns
are verbs to God…
see the water in this glass –
clear and still;
taste the water in this glass –
its sweet taste with no taste..
watch the Spring rain;
smell the earth give thanks
see the washing blowing on the line
smelling happy to be clean
see the mighty river, fierce
to reach the sea
watch the evening sea-fog roll in over the bay;
see the city washed afresh in the morning sun;
look up to the glorious theatre of clouds,
obeying water’s laws for all to watch;
know what mercy is; how it descends – appears,
as the gentle rain from heaven within;
what we see as nouns
are verbs to God
poem by Michael Shepherd
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What is your substance...?
What’s your ‘substance’, Aristotle, pray? -
that in your book On Metaphysics, you
should feel the need to look at ‘being’ more
than Plato said of soul? How ‘know thyself’?
You focus your so glorious mind, O sage,
on what confronts us in our human state;
hoping that from there, all will disclose
itself; and so you seek to formulate:
in Book Four, Chapter Two, acutely list
four ways, four meanings, of the Greek as used;
to us, they’re more apparent grammar-wise:
‘being’ as noun, verb, adverb, adjective…
you ultimately choose the languaged thing:
nouned as existence, substance - ‘ousia’;
no wonder Shakespeare took you up on that;
asking as he did, God’s self in human form
what were the essence of that insubstantial
substance that the world’s whole being holds:
and out from all these cloudy worlds of thought -
it’s ‘constancy’ in godly human heart..
I wonder, Aristotle, if Will’s search
to see the One that’s constant in the All
would satisfy your subtle Grecian mind?
or, in Creation’s grammar as it lives,
do active verbs precede substantive nouns?
And do we know our godly self more true,
as constant in ourselves, in Being Now?
*
[For Pete, who asked]
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Conjugating
I conjugate the verb to be:
miracle sentences;
non-existent one moment
then coming into Being
utterly unique the next;
perhaps never before
uttered
in all of existence
before this
moment,
on this page
at this time
from this mind.
Miracle this,
shared by all of us.
I conjugate the verb Coming into Being
from Potentialities of Being
trolling for words not yet extent
having some portion of Being
but not yet born
on Poet Pages.
I conjugate the verb Now Being Born
words coupling in sentences
flowing down
forming paragraphs
couplets, rhymes,
emotional hieroglyphics,
history,
Ideas
and glifs,
and then they
are on to Being Past.
In single verbs
we lash together
all Being;
that which is Now Born on pages,
that which was written yesterday
and those word-stories
we borrow
from future sentences
yet to be born
which live only in our dreams.
We conjure all this
from that Beautiful Nothingness
where Creativity lives
where unexpectedly
these Beings
come as daytime
and night-time sprites
into life
shine as diamond-faceted
moon-beams
changing who we are
as they transit.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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Words And Words
let us have an illusion of words
mesmerize ourselves with the movements of its verbs
and pretend about the beautiful feeling of its adjectives
let nothing be too personal about nouns
let us not be too excited about some interjections
let us shy away from so many questions
no orders, no imperatives no coercions
for tonight let there be only demonstrative pronouns
lips kissing, arms embracing, neck petting,
thighs making on top of each other hands entwine
fingers running, abdomens ebbing
let all be not just wishes, let it not just be on subjunctive moods
let there be verbs of romance, let there be sentences of lust
let us forget for once the word much abused by all:
i do not wish to utter it, let not love be feigned.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Means What It Does...
‘…means what it does’.
I read: ‘God cannot be named; cannot be and cannot have,
a ‘proper noun’; God can only be approached
through verbs and adjectives.’
The eight petunias which arrived so neatly in
their cardboard box as if pretending to be a book,
are already upright, thriving, growing;
that magic petal radiance of the deepest purple-blue
so delicate, so unique, seems to fill
the space around them with a message:
this is what God sings;
this is how God grows;
this is what God does;
this is what ‘God’ means.
*
And what of the ‘soul’? Can this be named?
as God in us, how can we know it
but by verbs and adjectives;
it ‘means’ just what it does..
A meditation, deep in inner mysteries
as mind delved in itself
for hidden things yet beyond words,
beyond all self yet known to be,
interrupted by the delivery man –
I drag myself reluctantly from chair to door:
he’s met with such a glorious sunshine burst
of goodwill, gratitude…
this is what soul sings;
this is how soul grows;
this is what soul does;
this is what ‘soul’ means.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Poetry is all nouns and verbs.
quote by Marianne Moore
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Most metaphysical words in Hopi are verbs, not nouns as in European languages.
quote by Benjamin Whorf
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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God is a verb, not a noun.
quote by R. Buckminster Fuller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun, proper or improper.
quote by R. Buckminster Fuller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Why indeed must 'God' be a noun? Why not a verb - the most active and dynamic of all.
Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.
quote by Martha Graham
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Word Flame
...Writhing in untamed delight...
I sear your name
...A brand 'cross the fence of my heart...
Scorched and rendered in
Your Flame
...Gravitating towards your longing noun
I've compiled loaded verbs just
For You
...In the heat of passion's vocabulary...
Coraled and harnessed
...Awaiting Our Ride For Two...
poem by Theodora Onken
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336
the main entry
of course in tonight’s activity
is the
crotch
I like it as a noun
And will always
Be itself a
Very hot noun
They say it
Might probably be an
Alteration
Of a crutch
In 1563
It was a pole with a forked end
A prop of old men
Actually as we see it
A crotch
Is just an angle formed by
The parting of two legs
This is the one
That I like best
An image of parting legs
Now this becomes
My favorite verb: parting.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb. It isn't something you get. It's something you do. It's the way you love your partner every day.
quote by Barbara de Angelis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Here is God's purpose - for God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun, proper or improper.
quote by R. Buckminster Fuller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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