Words and Blots

When I was at junior school in South London, we had to progress from writing with a pencil to a fountain pen. I was extremely excited because we had to go and buy one from the stationer. There were two brands to choose from: Platignum or Osmiroid. We had to have one with an italic nib. The choice of colours was limited but my new pen was blue and silver, shiny and weighty in my hand. I couldn’t wait to use it. I didn’t realise how hard it could be!

heavy pen in hand
a fountain of spider words
squirming on the page
every sentence finishes
with an inky Rorschach blot

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Image found on Pinterest

My response to Carpe Diem #1080 fountain pen

Today Chèvrefeuille has challenged us with ‘fountain pen’,  the English equivalent of the Dutch word ‘vulpen’, a kind of pen which requires ink cartridges or you have to squeeze the reservoir or lift a small lever to fill the pen with ink. He says that as he read the English words, he wondered why it was called a fountain pen but thought it sounded awesome: “this is a pen from which the inspiration flows like a fountain”.

Just to explain: the word ‘fountain’ comes from the possessive case (‘fontana’) of the Latin word ‘fons’: a source of water from a reservoir. It’s called a fountain pen because you don’t have to dip it in ink – it comes out of the nib as if there’s a fountain/source of ink in the pen.