Learning 'the weight of words'

 

“Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader.  You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear.” – Helen Dunmore

I wrote about Dunmore and her award winning work -- novels, children's literature and poetry -- earlier this week    For "Saturday's Poem" here is an abridged version of Dunmore's,  

Smiles Like Roses All down my street smiles opened like roses sun licked me and tickled me sun said, Didn’t you believe me when I said I’d be back? I blinked my eyes, I said, Sun, you are too strong for me where’d you get those muscles? Sun said, Come and dance. All over the park smiles opened like roses babies kicked off their shoes and sun kissed their toes. . . .