Passel

PASSEL

-noun
a group or lot of indeterminate number



A secret window
Opens on
A passel of Sibyls
Well hidden secret

Pruinose

PRUINOSE
[proo-uh-nohs]

-adj.
Botany - covered with a frost-like bloom or powdery secretion.























Pruinose bloom
A gift from the night

Crenelation

CRENELATION

-noun
1. The act of rendering a building defensible by the addition of battlements or by the cutting of loopholes.
2. The state or condition of being crenelated.
3. A battlement.
4. Any notch or indentation.























Crenelations
Made to retain sauce
But not to resist bites
Adding crunch
To succumbing pleasure

Torpor

TORPOR

–noun
1. sluggish inactivity or inertia.
2. lethargic indifference; apathy.
3. a state of suspended physical powers and activities.
4. dormancy, as of a hibernating animal.



Torpor!
Thy name is cat.

Prim

PRIM

–adj.
1. formally precise or proper, as persons or behaviour; stiffly neat.
–verb (used without object)
2. to draw up the mouth in an affectedly nice or precise way.
–verb (used with object)
3. to make prim, as in appearance.
4. to draw (one's face, lips, etc.) into a prim expression.



Prim windows
Bothered by naked figures
Pursing their shades
In unspoken disapproval

Scrannel

SCRANNEL

–adj.
1. thin or slight.
2. squeaky or unmelodious.




I feel for dead leaves
Tormented scrannel friends
Abandoned, unloved

Lissotrissic

LISSOTRISSIC
[lĭs'ə-trĭk'ĭk]

-adj.
Having straight hair.























I once dreamt
Of lissotrissic nymphs
Caught up in my branches
Then woke up to reality
Arms raised
But human.

sough

SOUGH

-intr. verb
1. To make a soft, low sighing or rustling sound, as the wind.

-noun
1. A soft, low rustling or sighing sound.























Tears on my window
Soughing in the night
Catching fire

List

LIST

—noun
1. an item-by-item record of names or things, usually written or printed one under the other
2. computing a linearly ordered data structure
3. be on the danger list to be in a critical medical or physical condition
—verb trans.
4. to make a list of
5. to include in a list
6. Brit . to declare to be a listed building
7. stock exchange to obtain an official quotation for (a security) so that it may be traded on the recognized market
8. an archaic word for enlist

—noun
1. a border or edging strip, especially of cloth
2. a less common word for selvage
3. a strip of bark, sapwood, etc, trimmed from a board or plank
4. another word for fillet
5. a strip, band, ridge or furrow
6. agriculture a ridge in ploughed land formed by throwing two furrows together
—verb
7. to border with or as if with a list or lists
8. agriculture to plough (land) so as to form lists
9. to cut a list from (a board, plank, etc)

—verb
1. (especially of ships) to lean over or cause to lean over to one side
—noun
2. the act or an instance of leaning to one side

—verb
1. to be pleasing to (a person)
2. ( trans.) to desire or choose
—noun
3. a liking or desire

—verb
an archaic or poetic word for listen

























A lone winter rose
Lists towards the light
Is this love?

Filament

FILAMENT

-noun
1. a very fine thread or threadlike structure; a fiber or fibril.
2. a single fibril of natural or synthetic textile fiber, of indefinite length, sometimes several miles long.
3. a long slender cell or series of attached cells, as in some algae and fungi.
4. Botany . the stalklike portion of a stamen, supporting the anther.
5. Ornithology . the barb of a down feather.
6. (in a light bulb or other incandescent lamp) the threadlike conductor, often of tungsten, in the bulb that is heated to incandescence by the passage of current.
7. Electronics . the heating element (sometimes also acting as a cathode) of a vacuum tube, resembling the filament in an incandescent bulb.
8. Astronomy . a solar prominence, as viewed within the sun's limb.

























An unusual ingredient
Boasting tea and filament.
Should I risk it?

Ilk

ILK

—noun
1. a type; class; sort (esp in the phrase of that, his, her, etc, ilk ).
2. ( Scot ) "of that ilk" of the place of the same name: used to indicate that the person named is proprietor or laird of the place named.

-pronoun
1. each.
-adj.
2. each; every.



Face it:
That ilk does not really need you
They like to make you think they do.
You are less important than a sun beam.

Fash

FASH

—noun
1. worry; trouble; bother
—verb
2. to trouble; bother; annoy




Against fash
Be direct
Blunt even
Life is short

Amphigory

AMPHIGORY
[am-fi-gawr-ee, -gohr-ee]

-noun
1. a meaningless or nonsensical piece of writing, especially one intended as a parody.
2. a piece of nonsensical writing in verse or, less commonly, prose
Also: amphigouri




Words chasing each other on a page
A game turned amphigory
In truth there is nothing more to it

Shun

SHUN

-verb
to keep away from (a place, person, object, etc.), from motives of dislike, caution, etc.; take pains to avoid.



I learnt
To shun
Nostalgia
But the scent
Of old paper
Moves me
To tears
Still

Harangue

HARANGUE
[huh-rang]

-noun
1. a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack; diatribe.
2. a long, passionate, and vehement speech, especially one delivered before a public gathering.
3. any long, pompous speech or writing of a tediously hortatory or didactic nature; sermonizing lecture or discourse.
-verb (used with object)
4. to address in a harangue.























I warned them not to follow
Or else...
But obviously
They did not quite know
What do make of my harangue.

Dysthymia

DYSTHYMIA
[dis-thahy-mee-uh]

-noun
A mild depression



The sun is out
But
The old tree is still showing
Traces of dysthymia

Coddle

CODDLE

—verb
1. to treat with indulgence
2. to cook (something, especially eggs) in water just below the boiling point
—noun
3. dialect ( Irish ) stew made from ham and bacon scraps























Coddled egg
Drowned in cheese cream
Bacon mermaids in the froth
Metamorphosed delight

Together

TOGETHER

-adv.
1. into or in one gathering, company, mass, place, or body.
2. into or in union, proximity, contact, or collision, as two or more things.
3. into or in relationship, association, business, or agreement, etc., as two or more persons.
4. taken or considered collectively or conjointly.
5. (of a single thing) into or in a condition of unity, compactness, or coherence.
6. at the same time; simultaneously.
7. without intermission or interruption; continuously; uninterruptedly.
8. in cooperation; with united action; conjointly.
9. with mutual action; mutually; reciprocally



Together
The sun is warmer
The roof softer
Our dreams wilder
Together

Coalesce

COALESCE

-verb(used without object)
1. to grow together or into one body.
2. to unite so as to form one mass, community, etc.
3.to blend or come together
-verb (used with object)
4. to cause to unite in one body or mass.



A temple
A shark fin
Unfathomable markers
Along the Silk Road
Coalescing into mystery

Ogle

OGLE

-verb (used with object)
1. to look at amorously, flirtatiously, or impertinently.
2. to eye; look or stare at.
-verb (used without object)
3. to look amorously, flirtatiously, or impertinently.
4. to look or stare.
-noun
5. an amorous, flirtatious, or impertinent glance or stare.























Passing through rooms
Ogling the wares
Breathing in inspiration

Wry

WRY

—adj.
1. twisted, contorted, or askew
2. (of a facial expression) produced or characterized by contorting of the features, usually indicating dislike
3. drily humorous; sardonic
4. warped, misdirected, or perverse
5. (of words, thoughts, etc) unsuitable or wrong
—verb trans.
6. to twist or contort























Wry comment on the soul
Unable to pull the body
To its death

Midden

MIDDEN

-noun
1.a. archaic , dialect or a dunghill or pile of refuse
b. dialect a dustbin
c. dialect ( Northern English ) an earth closet
2. Kitchen midden . a mound consisting of shells of edible mollusks and other refuse, marking the site of a prehistoric human habitation.



Torn pages tossing in the wind
A midden of slashed secrets

Gridlock

GRIDLOCK

—noun
1. obstruction of urban traffic caused by queues of vehicles forming across junctions and causing further queues to form in the intersecting streets
2. a point in a dispute at which no agreement can be reached; deadlock
—verb trans.
3. (of traffic) to block or obstruct (an area)























Frozen in marble
Historical gridlock
A story unfolds

Glume

GLUME

-noun
1. botany one of a pair of dry membranous bracts at the base of the spikelet of grasses
2. the bract beneath each flower in a sedge or related plant























When harvesting chives
I make sure to do away with glume
Despite its charming name.

Dapper

DAPPER

—adj.
1. neat and spruce in dress and bearing; trim
2. small and nimble























Dapper creature
Even when feral or stray
Neat killer

Adventive

ADVENTIVE

—adj.
1. (of a species) introduced to a new area and not yet established there; exotic
—noun
2. such a plant or animal























Hanging pots
Adventive plants
subject to winds

Desmology

DESMOLOGY

-noun
The science which treats of the ligaments.























Despite a first impression
I was disappointed to find
That desmology is not about demons
Although it deals with evil
Flaming joints all the same.

Lenticular

LENTICULAR

-adj.
1. Also: lentoid shaped like a biconvex lens
2. of or concerned with a lens or lenses
3. shaped like a lentil seed
4. of or relating to a galaxy with a large central bulge, small disc, but no spiral arms, intermediate in shape between spiral and elliptical galaxies























Resting on the edge
Of a lenticular seat
Dreaming of the next meal

Guy

GUY

-noun
1. Informal . a man or boy; fellow.
2. Usually, guys. Informal . persons of either sex; people.
3. Chiefly British Slang . a grotesquely dressed person.
4. ( often initial capital letter ) British . a grotesque effigy of Guy Fawkes that is paraded through the streets and burned on Guy Fawkes Day.
-verb (used with object)
5. to jeer at or make fun of; ridicule.

-noun
1. a rope, cable, or appliance used to guide and steady an object being hoisted or lowered, or to secure anything likely to shift its position.
verb (used with object)
2. to guide, steady, or secure with a guy or guys.























Fun
Guying Pythagoras
And his science.
Some jealous guy?

Aprication

APRICATION

-noun
Basking in the sun























Nothing like a sharp nippy winter day
To make aprication all the more enjoyable.

Epact

EPACT

—noun
1. the difference in time, about 11 days, between the solar year and the lunar year
2. the number of days between the beginning of the calendar year and the new moon immediately preceding this
3. the difference in time between the calendar month and the synodic month




We celebrate the epact
A worthier pursuit
To have along with wine.

Happy new(ish) year