Ebullition, an E-story

Lets start real quick with the challenge house keeping.

I was late to A, B, C, and D for Penny Fuller’s “The A-Z of Unusual Words Challenge”, but I wanted to try to join for the next letter and I get a kick out of checking off boxes in order. So, before I do competition E, I figured I should do A, B, C and D, (which you can find here here and here and here) even though I can’t vie for the top spots and that sweet $1 tip.

So, I have the reference to the challenge (check), the meaning of my word (check), and a poem for that word (check). Here we go-yo, fro-yo.

Ebullition

Definition

Miriam Websters Dictionary defines ebullition as such:

definition: ebullition

noun

eb·​ul·​li·​tion ˌe-bə-ˈli-shən

1 : a sudden violent outburst or display

2 : the act, process, or state of boiling or bubbling up

Meaning to me:

There is something about the feeling of the word ebullition that sounds like ablution, but gives a bit of warning flashers. Where ablutions are cleansing oneselves, ebullitions make promises that are a bit uncertain. In this case ebullitions are boiling, but things can bubble up with just the injection of air. Will you get burnt or will you get aerated? I love this imagery in which an ebullition is an illusion of assumption that can only really be absolved by feeling it with your senses. Is it a hot bubbling? Or a fleeting one? Is the violence a rage? A firework? A spray of air bubbles in water? Or the heavy violent pop of a pinata? Whether the ebullitions are comforting, like watching you tea bubble up to the perfect set, or terrifying, like watching lava in a nightmare, will completely depend on the micro-story of your life. I love the image this brings forth in poems and dramatic writings.

Poem:

When the bubbles popped

I couldn’t see far beyond the heated mist. You stoked my reverence with tiny sparks on angry flint. I was grateful for the water pouring from my spine, a liquid full of cleansing things, singing your ash into fleshed out carbon. You told me hymns were ablutions but, when I felt the pop of your spittle, I knew that tea cups full of sour notes could only be saved by my heated kettle. Ablutions, ablations, evasions, ebullitions. Your skin is too silky under pressed satin; too chalky crushed under shale; my cocoons will withhold the dew until your promises boil over and our lips become moist once more.

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Thanks for visiting my page. This is where I put a little blurb about how nifty the contest is, and would you please go read some of my favorite work (see below)

If you'd like to see more of my work here are two of my favorite poems that I've written:

Butter Cream: https://shopping-feedback.today/poets/butter-cream%3C/a%3E

When we were young: https://shopping-feedback.today/poets/when-we-were-young-m7bv010dxa%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp class="css-14azzlx-P e1ccqnho0">I hope to see more of you later!

But I'm actually struggling with something here. That is that the meaning section should only be about 100-150 words, and honestly exceeding 200 words in a poem is kind of a feat. That only leaves me with about 400 words once I do the info. Vocal FAQ's indicate they want pieces that are over 600 words. At first the "meaning to me" sections I was writing I went more in depth because I figured since I wasn't being evaluated for winning each letter challenge, keeping myself to a specific word count wasn't a big deal, so I went past 600 with just a little boost from the above blurb.

But for letter C, in which I wrote a haiku, I fell short of 600 by 10 words.

Every other vocal piece I've put through, regardless of the time of day, goes through within 10-15 minutes. But letter C was still in limbo hours later when I finalized the draft of Letter D and finished the rough draft of Letter E and worked on two pieces so I could have spacing between my letter submissions. (It was eventually approved and not kicked back so I'm not sure what happened there.)

So I guess my confusion is, with these word limits, what do I add that boosts the total word count to 600 without it being silly fluff and filler (silly is ok I guess, maybe what I mean is redundant and pointless filler).

Given there are 21 more letters after E, I'm going to have to figure this conundrum out in the next few weeks.