by DeWitt Henry
 |
Got rizz? The actor Tom Holland claimed to have none, sending the internet into a tizzy and inadvertently propelling the slang term to victory as Oxford’s Word of the Year. Photo: Araya Doheny/ Getty Images via The New York Times, December 3, 2023 |
from cha-RIS-ma.
The power to captivate,
charm, compel, lead,
sway, stir, and attract
mass followings.
charm, compel, lead,
sway, stir, and attract
mass followings.
Jeepers, creepers,
where’d you get those eyes?
How they hypnotize!
Personal magnetism. It!
Grace. Magic. Presence. Genius.
Brand. Whiz of a wiz
in the sleight-of-hand biz.
Grace. Magic. Presence. Genius.
Brand. Whiz of a wiz
in the sleight-of-hand biz.
Pot-bellied roue, quarterback,
or material girl. Swami
or clown: media messiahs,
though diz-dained by Orwellians,
have become so common
that abbreviation names
their rise, claim, and fizz.
DeWitt Henry’s recent books are Restless For Words: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2023), a new U.S. edition of Foundlings: Found Poems From Prose (with art by Ruth K. Henry) and Trim Reckonings: Poems, both from Pierian Springs Press in 2023. He was the founding editor of Ploughshares and is Prof. Emeritus at Emerson College.