Wednesday 30 November 2011

Teratology

TERATOLOGY
[ter-uh-tol-uh-jee]

-noun Biology.
the science or study of monstrosities or abnormal formations in organisms.

























Teratology turned art
Or was it art that started it?
Discovered the attraction,
The pull of monsters?

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Faldage

FALDAGE

-noun
A privilege of setting up, and moving about, folds for sheep, in any fields within manors, in order to manure them; often reserved to himself by the lord of the manor.























Passing through vineyards
By antic right of faldage
Flocks of sheep and dogs

Monday 28 November 2011

Epigone

EPIGONE
[ep-i-gohn]

-noun
an undistinguished imitator, follower, or successor of an important writer, painter, etc.



And who am I
But an epigone?


Background picture obtained with PhotoFunia

Sunday 27 November 2011

Moil

MOIL
[moil]

-verb (used without object)
1. to work hard; drudge.
2. to whirl or churn ceaselessly; twist; eddy.
-verb (used with object)
3. Archaic. to wet or smear.
-noun
4. hard work or drudgery.
5. confusion, turmoil, or trouble.
6. Glassmaking. a superfluous piece of glass formed during blowing and removed in the finishing operation.
7. Mining. a short hand tool with a polygonal point, used for breaking or prying out rock.

























Dough making
Requires a good dose of moiling
As well as time.

Saturday 26 November 2011

Lich

LICH
[lich]

-noun British Obsolete.
1. the body; the trunk.
2. a dead body; corpse.



Poor lich,
Such stress!
But, wait:
He's purring still.

Friday 25 November 2011

Integument

INTEGUMENT
[in-teg-yuh-muhnt]

-noun

1. a natural covering, as a skin, shell, or rind.
2. any covering, coating, enclosure, etc.

























A new colour
Rust brought in
On the wings of pollution
Red integument

Thursday 24 November 2011

Lyard

LYARD
[LAHY-erd]

-adj.
Streaked or spotted with gray or white.

























Lyard windshield
No frost flowers for me.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Caduke

CADUKE


-adj.

Perishable; frail; transitory.



A moment of confusion
Is it that late already?
Caduke time.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Murmur

MURMUR
[mur-mer]

-noun
1. a low, continuous sound, as of a brook, the wind, or trees, or of low, indistinct voices.
2. a mumbled or private expression of discontent.
3. Also called heart murmur. Medicine/Medical.
a. an abnormal sound heard on listening to the heart, usually through a stethoscope, produced by the blood passing through deformed cardiac valves.
b. in some persons a similar sound heard when blood passes through normal valves.
4. Phonetics. a voice quality in which vibration of the vocal cords is accompanied by the escape of a great deal of air, as in the (h) of ahead; breathy voice.
-verb (used without object)
5. to make a low or indistinct sound, especially continuously.
6. to speak in a low tone or indistinctly.
7. to complain in a low tone or in private.
-verb (used with object)
8. to sound by murmurs.
9. to utter in a low tone




A murmur
So soft
So tender
To the ear
A murmur
Can murder
A heart
If displaced
Or malicious

Monday 21 November 2011

Forficate

FORFICATE
[FOR-fi-kit, kayt]

-adj.
Deeply forked.

























Beyond forficate
Into a maze
A fractured world
For fractured times

Sunday 20 November 2011

Groat

GROAT
[groht]

-noun
a silver coin of England, equal to four pennies, issued from 1279 to 1662.

-Plural noun - groats
1. the hulled and crushed grain of oats, wheat, or certain other cereals
2. the parts of oat kernels, buckwheat, or barley used as food























Playing around with groats
You could make a few groats
If it wasn't for time delay
And caducity.

Saturday 19 November 2011

Purr

PURR
[pur]

-verb (used without object)

1. to utter a low, continuous, murmuring sound expressive of contentment or pleasure, as a cat does.
2. (of things) to make a sound suggestive of the purring of a cat.
-verb (used with object)
3. to express by or as if by purring.
-noun
4. the low, vibrating sound made by a cat by the contracting of the laryngeal muscles and the diaphragm as it breathes.
5. a sound resembling this.
6. the act of purring.























She purrs so
Loud and clear
A little hand trap
Luring you closer
Bound to her will

Friday 18 November 2011

Fever

FEVER
[fee-ver]

-noun
1. an abnormal condition of the body, characterized by undue rise in temperature, quickening of the pulse, and disturbance of various body functions.
2. an abnormally high body temperature.
3. the number of degrees of such a temperature above the normal.
4. any of a group of diseases in which high temperature is a prominent symptom.
5. intense nervous excitement.
-verb (used with object)
6. to affect with or as with fever



Treading the file line
Between imagination and hypochondria
Fever could easily transform me
In a dead piece of wood.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Occult

OCCULT
[uh-kuhlt, ok-uhlt]

-adj.
1. of or pertaining to magic, astrology, or any system claiming use or knowledge of secret or supernatural powers or agencies.
2. beyond the range of ordinary knowledge or understanding; mysterious.
3. secret; disclosed or communicated only to the initiated.
4. hidden from view.
5. (in early science)
a. not apparent on mere inspection but discoverable by experimentation.
b. of a nature not understood, as physical qualities.
c. dealing with such qualities; experimental: occult science.
6. Medicine/Medical. present in amounts too small to be visible
-noun
7. the supernatural or supernatural agencies and affairs considered as a whole (usually preceded by "the").
8. occult studies or sciences (usually preceded by "the").
-verb (used with object)
9. to block or shut off (an object) from view; hide.
10.Astronomy. to hide (a celestial body) by occultation.
-verb (used without object)
11.to become hidden or shut off from view.




Anamorphic frescoes
Occulted by a point of view
Isn’t everything else as well?

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Zoetrope

ZOETROPE
[zoh-ee-trohp]
-noun
a device for giving an illusion of motion, consisting of a slitted drum that, when whirled, shows a succession of images placed opposite the slits within the drum as one moving image.

























Shadows and light
Life's binary code
Zoetrope progress

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Bathos

BATHOS
[bey-thos, -thaws, -thohs]

-noun
1. a ludicrous descent from the exalted or lofty to the commonplace; anticlimax.
2. insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness.
3. triteness or triviality in style.



Too often is funeral art
Rife with bathos.
Angels still delight.

Monday 14 November 2011

Naught

NAUGHT
[nawt]

-noun
1. nothing.
2. a cipher (0); zero.
-adj.
3. lost; ruined.
4. Archaic. worthless; useless.
5. Obsolete. morally bad; wicked.
-adv.
6. Obsolete. not.
ALSO: nought



Her mouth a perfect naught
Naught, devoured by time.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Wither

WITHER
[with-er]

-verb (used without object)
1. to shrivel; fade; decay.
2. to lose the freshness of youth, as from age (often followed by “away”).



October jewels
Offered by withered hands
Late raspberries

Saturday 12 November 2011

Quisle

QUISLE
[KWIZ-uhl]

-verb intr.
To betray, especially by collaborating with an enemy.























Could those soft ears,
This fluffy head quisle?
Yes.
Mind your hands.

Friday 11 November 2011

Deter

DETER
[dih-tur]

-verb (used with object)
1. to discourage or restrain from acting or proceeding.
2. to prevent; check; arrest

























Deter
It does not:
Deers
and
Bears
Can't read

Thursday 10 November 2011

Ferly

FERLY
[FER-lee]

-noun
1. Something unusual, strange, or causing wonder or terror.
2. Astonishment; wonder.
-adj.
1. Unexpected; strange; unusual.

























In most unexpected places
Ferly creatures roam
Ready to puzzle or to spook

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Auricular

AURICULAR
[aw-rik-yuh-ler]

-adj.
1. of or pertaining to the ear or to the sense of hearing; aural.
2. perceived by or addressed to the ear; made in private.
3. dependent on hearing; understood or known by hearing.
4. shaped like an ear; auriculate.
5. Anatomy. pertaining to an auricle of the heart.
6. Ornithology. pertaining to certain often modified feathers that cover and protect the opening of a bird's ear.



Morning,
Dropping auricular hints
Of sky's love affair with pink:
The signals are differents

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Anosmia

ANOSMIA

-noun
the loss of the sense of smell, either total or partial. May be caused by head injury, infection, or blockage of the nose.



Fits of anosmia
First signs of cold

Monday 7 November 2011

See

SEE

-verb (used with object)
1. to perceive with the eyes; look at.
2. to view; visit or attend as a spectator: to see a play.
3. to perceive by means of computer vision.
4. to scan or view, especially by electronic means.
5. to perceive (things) mentally; discern; understand
6. to construct a mental image of; visualize.
7. to accept or imagine or suppose as acceptable.
8. to be cognizant of; recognize.
9. to foresee.
10.to ascertain, learn, or find out.
11.to have knowledge or experience of.
12.to make sure.
13.to meet and converse with.
14.to receive as a visitor.
15.to visit.
16.to court, keep company with, or date frequently.
17.to provide aid or assistance to; take care of.
18.to attend or escort.
19.Cards. to match (a bet) or match the bet of (a bettor) by staking an equal sum; call.
20.to prefer (someone or something) to be as indicated (usually used as a mild oath).
21.to read or read about
-verb (used without object)
22.to have the power of sight.
23.to be capable of perceiving by means of computer vision.
24.to understand intellectually or spiritually; have insight.
25.to give attention or care.
26.to find out; make inquiry.
27.to consider; think; deliberate.
28.to look about; observe

-noun
Ecclesiastical. the seat, center of authority, office, or jurisdiction of a bishop



See the see
and reconsider

Sunday 6 November 2011

Diabatic

DIABATIC
[dahy-uh-bat-ik]

-adj.
occurring with an exchange of heat























Diabatic magic
Wrecking the oven
With sheer delight

Saturday 5 November 2011

Soporose

SOPOROSE
(SOP-uh-ros)

-adj.
Sleepy; in an unusually deep sleep.



Soporose cat:
An almost
Redundant adjective.

Friday 4 November 2011

Flagitious

FLAGITIOUS
[fluh-jish-uhs]

-adj.
1. shamefully wicked, as persons, actions, or times.
2. heinous or flagrant, as a crime; infamous.



Errant space hermit,
Flagitious elder god crawls
From vacant soul to vacant soul
Into empty craniums
Living off sanity shreds
Humming itself to sleep.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Coeval

COEVAL
[koh-ee-vuhl]

-adj.

1. of the same age, date, or duration; equally old.
2. coincident:
-noun
3. a contemporary

























I have problems believing
This creature and I are truly coeval
Yet her spirit lives in me still
Despite many more wrinkles.


Picture (c) René Beudin 1969

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Eversion

EVERSION

-noun
a turning or being turned outward or inside out.























Behold
Exploding
Pomegranate
Eversion
Motion

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Pandect

PANDECT
[pan-dekt]

-noun
1. a treatise covering all aspects of a particular subject
2. ( often plural ) the complete body of laws of a country; legal code



Good old pandects
Unusable nowadays
Victims of caducity.