Have faith in the noun faith – But not deep faith. Because the adjective deep is continuously slurping around on the waves of writing – (I have seen deep three and five times on a single page), this modifier has now drifted shoreward, stranding in the last vestiges of water pushing free-floating debris onto the beach. Deep is a shallow adjective. And deeply is a shallow adverb.

 

          Better to leave the noun that the adjective deep modifies unmodified. Take a noun like faith. Haven’t you often heard “deep faith?” This adjective adds nothing. It is a bland sneak-in. It drains the noun of its strength. Have faith in the noun , faith. Let this noun stand alone and take on the full responsibility for its power. It really has power standing alone without surrounding adjectives and adverbs looking as though they are holding faith up. This goes for any noun or other modified word.

 

Look at other nouns in the poem that you have modified with adjectives and adverbs. Think about deleting the modifier for each of many of them.

 

Deep is permissible if you are referring to something that literally is deep. The bottom of the ocean is deep. You can use the generic deep here. But how deep? Say it! However, better to use measurement. Is the part of the sea you might be referring to in your poem 80 feet deep? Say it! “Eighty feet deep.” 

 

Feel the stronger power that exudes from the noun, faith, (or any modified word) when it is allowed to stand alone instead of reduced to being another word in the line? Allow the noun to rise as a tower in the sentence. Surrounded with interesting language the noun, faith, rises as an Eiffel Tower. Think of how tourists look up to the Eiffel Tower!

 

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