WORD LISTS

"The Poet X" by Elizabeth Acevedo, Part II

Wed May 02 16:25:22 EDT 2018
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
Xiomara hides her poetry from her religious family, but when she joins a slam poetry club, she must decide whether or not she's ready for her voice to be heard. Learn these words from the acclaimed novel-in-verse by slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part I, Part II, Part III
inherently
I wouldn’t even date a boy like Twin,
thinking people are inherently good,
always seeing the best in them.
scrawny
He looks nothing like me.
He’s small. Scrawny.
bound
He is an award-winning bound book,
where I am loose and blank pages.
intuition
He has no twin intuition!
oblivious
Twin: oblivious—although happier than he usually looks.
sonnet
He is not elegant enough for a sonnet,
too well-thought-out for a free write,
taking too much space in my thoughts
to ever be a haiku.
haiku
He is not elegant enough for a sonnet,
too well-thought-out for a free write,
taking too much space in my thoughts
to ever be a haiku.
affair
She would call every day at first
and always tell me the same thing,
she 'was handling affairs.'
parable
Her story is a parable
to teach us how to deal with temptation.
obligated
Aren’t priests obligated to confidentiality?
solace
Tells me
I should find solace in a forgiving religion.
quirk
He cocks his head at me, and his lips quirk up a bit.
distraught
Since her parents were distraught that the neighborhood had changed, that there were no more Latino families and the bodegas and sastrería were all closed down, Xiomara used her earnings to buy them a house in the Dominican Republic.
swoon
Swoon

In science we learned
that thermal conductivity
is how heat flows through
some materials better than others.
conductivity
Swoon

In science we learned
that thermal conductivity
is how heat flows through
some materials better than others.
meme
C: Girl, this angry cat meme reminded me of you.
gibberish
It be gibberish but everything
you whisper sounds like poetry.
premonition
Father Sean asks me if things are going well?
And for a second, I think he knows about the kiss.
That through some divine premonition
or psychic ability...he knows.
chalice
But then I see him glance at the altar
at the covered chalice full of wine,
the plate holding the soft circles of the body of Christ.
midriff
Tug on the hem of Twins Green Lantern tee
(it fits tight...and shows some midriff.
I’m glad Mami didn’t ask to see what I had on under my jacket.)
rook
His fingers move a rook across the screen,
attacking some imaginary opponent.
condone
But maybe my silence.
Just made him feel more alone.
Maybe my silence.
Condones the ugly things people think.
discord
A part of myself rebels against the discord.
persona
...I think the persona she portrays in her videos is really different from who she is in real life.
dictate
I also think society puts a negative spin on her music by saying she’s allowing men to dictate how she raps, but a lot of her music shows a positive outlook on physical beauty.
outlook
I also think society puts a negative spin on her music by saying she’s allowing men to dictate how she raps, but a lot of her music shows a positive outlook on physical beauty.
pang
I take a deep breath at the pang of nostalgia.
nostalgia
I take a deep breath at the pang of nostalgia.
crevice
I've
learned
that
ants...
—can
crawl
through
crevices
apocalypse
—they
will
survive
the
apocalypse.
pristine
Don’t look for pristine handling
when men use your tears for Pine-Sol;

they’ll mop the floor with your pride.
brittle
Make your heart a Brillo pad,

brittle and steel—don’t be no damn sponge.
callus
We would walk down the street
and I would rub her calluses.
pedestal
I just don’t know when I got too big

for the appointed pedestal.
grill
I push my locker closed and grill Aman before walking away.

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