Wednesday 30 November 2016

Cull

CULL

-verb (trans.)
1. to choose or gather the best or required examples
2. to take out (an animal, especially an inferior one) from a herd
3. to reduce the size of (a herd or flock) by killing a proportion of its members
4. to gather (flowers, fruit, etc.)
5. to cease to employ; get rid of
-noun
6. the act or product of culling
7. an inferior animal taken from a herd or group

























In case of excess
Kill your darlings
Cull a few angels
Replace them by dragons
It’s all a matter of wings
And the dreams you should

Have had instead

Tuesday 29 November 2016

Intuit

INTUIT

-verb
to know or discover by intuition

























Let
Us
get lost
In alleys
Without intuit
No sense nor rhyme, no ups or downs
Exit but an illusion
A shimmering sea
At the end
Of a
Blind

View

Monday 28 November 2016

Oodles

OODLES

-plural noun

(informal) great quantities

























Today’s achievement
Oodles of years
And (hopefully)
More to come

Sunday 27 November 2016

Feijoa

FEIJOA

-noun
1. an evergreen myrtaceous shrub, Feijoa sellowiana, of South America
2. the fruit of this shrub

























Wind has culled
And pushed

Feijoas in my path

Saturday 26 November 2016

Innocuous

INNOCUOUS

-adj.

having little or no adverse or harmful effect; harmless


























You might think of her
As an innocuous creature
But her ears are a warning:
Don’t mess with the lady!

Friday 25 November 2016

Captious

CAPTIOUS

-adj.
apt to make trivial criticisms; fault-finding; carping

























To pay for university
Lea spent her weekends
Writing mean little articles
Loaded with captious comments

For the local newspaper

Thursday 24 November 2016

Trenchant

TRENCHANT

-adj.
1. keen or incisive
2. vigorous and effective
3. distinctly defined
4. (archaic or poetic) sharp

























Ruined cave dwellings
A trenchant monarch
Pasted to derelict walls

Museum of despair

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Bribe

BRIBE

-verb
1. to promise, offer, or give something, usually money, to (a person) to procure services or gain influence, especially illegally
-noun
2. a reward, such as money or favour, given or offered for this purpose
3. any persuasion or lure
4. a length of flawed or damaged cloth removed from the main piece
























Bribes being taken
Or spoken of
Cloth felony innuendoes
Something evil is moving
And it might be the press

Or pure gossip

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Spectacle

SPECTACLE

-noun
1. a public display or performance, especially a showy or ceremonial one
2. a thing or person seen, especially an unusual or ridiculous one
3. a strange or interesting object or phenomenon
4. (modifier) of or relating to spectacles


























A hidden alley
Free spectacle for all
To ogle and distort

Monday 21 November 2016

Nonplus

NONPLUS

-verb
1. (trans.) to put at a loss; confound
-noun
2. a state of utter perplexity prohibiting action or speech

























The concave mirror effect nonplusses
Adding details out of scope from reality

Possibly a portal to another dimension




Sunday 20 November 2016

Date

DATE

-noun
1. a specified day of the month
2. the particular day or year of an event
3. (plural) the years of a person's birth and death or of the beginning and end of an event or period
4. an inscription on a coin, letter, etc., stating when it was made or written
5. (social)
a. an appointment for a particular time, especially with a person to whom one is sexually or romantically attached
b. the person with whom the appointment is made
6. the present moment
-verb
7. (trans.) to mark (a letter, coin, etc.) with the day, month, or year
8. (trans.) to assign a date of occurrence or creation to
9. (intr.; followed by “from” or “back to”) to have originated (at a specified time)
10. (trans.) to reveal the age of
11. to make or become old-fashioned
12. (informal), (mainly US and Canadian)
a. to be a boyfriend or girlfriend of (someone of the opposite sex)
b. to accompany (a member of the opposite sex) on a date

-noun
1. the fruit of the date palm, having sweet edible flesh and a single large woody seed
2. short for date palm




















Here we have a date
With a date
Waiting for dessert


Date photo by Kevin Fai (licensed under creative commons)

Saturday 19 November 2016

Malapert

MALAPERT

-adj.
1. (archaic or literary) saucy or impudent
-noun
2. (archaic or literary) a saucy or impudent person

























For a not so humble feee,
The hunt is open
And I invade the inhabitants
Of this cute Kitty Café
With my camera
Making a pest of myself
Being called malapert

By the furry locals 

Friday 18 November 2016

Bimonthly

BIMONTHLY

-adj., -adv.
1. every two months
2. (often avoided because of confusion with sense 1) twice a month; semimonthly.
-noun
3. a periodical published every two months


























Sam would go out
And meet death bimonthly
For a game of chess
Played for money;
Cheated to lose so that
Death could afford something to eat
It looked way too thin
To be healthy

Thursday 17 November 2016

Bumfuzzle

BUMFUZZLE

-verb (trans.)
to confuse


























A partially torn poster
Bumfuzzles the mind
For a short while
Then memory strikes back
To homophobic propaganda

I tear the rest of the poster

Wednesday 16 November 2016

Obfuscate

OBFUSCATE

-verb (trans.)
1. to obscure or darken

2. to perplex or bewilder















Inattentive glances
And mixed propaganda
Obfuscating the message
This is no teething angel
But Aeolus firing a rocket

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Assonance

ASSONANCE

-noun
1. the use of the same vowel sound with different consonants or the same consonant with different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables, as in a line of verse.
2. partial correspondence; rough similarity

















Rosy dawn
Gelid morning

Atmospheric assonance

Monday 14 November 2016

Dissonance

DISSONANCE

-noun
1. a discordant combination of sounds
2. lack of agreement or consistency
3. (music)
a. a sensation commonly associated with all intervals of the second and seventh, all diminished and augmented intervals, and all chords based on these intervals.
b. an interval or chord of this kind

























Pinching the cords of dissonance
Asserting my rights to be different
Incongruent and magnificently unique
Just like my cells want me to be


Sunday 13 November 2016

Ginger

GINGER

-noun
1. any of several zingiberaceous plants of the genus Zingiber, especially Z. officinale of the East Indies, cultivated throughout the tropics for its spicy hot-tasting underground stem.
2. the underground stem of this plant, which is used fresh or powdered as a flavouring or crystallized as a sweetmeat
3. any of certain related plants
4. a reddish-brown or yellowish-brown colour
5. (informal) . liveliness; vigour
6. (informal) . a person with ginger hair
-verb
7. (trans.) to add the spice ginger to (a dish)

























Fate is fiery

Ginger and scary

Saturday 12 November 2016

Regal

REGAL

-adj.
of, relating to, or befitting a king or queen; royal

-noun

(sometimes plural) a portable organ equipped only with small reed pipes, popular from the 15th century and recently revived for modern performance
























Accepting homages
The only acceptable orange tyrant
A most regal creature
The poor fractured Heathcliffe

Friday 11 November 2016

Harum-scarum

HARUM-SCARUM


-adj., -adv.
1. in a reckless way or of a reckless nature
-noun
2. a person who is impetuous or rash


























Oh the votes
Have gone all harum-scarum

May we all rust in peace

Thursday 10 November 2016

Hmm

HMM

-exclamation
a sound made when considering or puzzling over something






















My favourite Englishman
Says "hmm" a lot
And can make it sound cheeky
(Happy birthday, Neil)

Wednesday 9 November 2016

Roost

ROOST

-noun
1. a place, perch, branch, etc., where birds, especially domestic fowl, rest or sleep
2. a temporary place to rest or stay
-verb (intr.)
3. to rest or sleep on a roost
4. to settle down or stay

























At the end of the journey
I find my old roost

Filled with whatnots and books

Tuesday 8 November 2016

Spindle

SPINDLE

-noun
1. a rod or stick that has a notch in the top, used to draw out natural fibres for spinning into thread, and a long narrow body around which the thread is wound when spun
2. one of the thin rods or pins bearing bobbins upon which spun thread is wound in a spinning wheel or machine
3. any of various parts in the form of a rod, especially a rotating rod that acts as an axle, mandrel, or arbour
4. a piece of wood that has been turned, such as a baluster or table leg
5. a small square metal shaft that passes through the lock of a door and to which the door knobs or handles are fixed
6. a measure of length of yarn equal to 18 hanks (15 120 yards) for cotton or 14 400 yards for linen
7. (biology) a spindle-shaped structure formed by microtubules during mitosis or meiosis which draws the duplicated chromosomes apart as the cell divides
8. a less common name for a hydrometer
9. a tall pole with a marker at the top, fixed to an underwater obstruction as an aid to navigation
10. a device consisting of a sharp upright spike on a pedestal on which bills, order forms, etc., are impaled
11. short for spindle tree (any of various shrubs or trees of the genus Euonymus, especially E. europaeus, of Europe and Western Asia, typically having red fruits and yielding a hard wood formerly used in making spindles – family: Celastraceae)
-verb
12. (trans.) to form into a spindle or equip with spindles

13. (intr.) rare (of a plant, stem, shoot, etc.) to grow rapidly and become elongated and thin


























You wander about, crushing chestnuts husks underfoot,
Hermaphrodite spindle tangled in your hair
Death promised with every lock laughing in the autumn sun






Monday 7 November 2016

Photon

PHOTON

-noun

a quantum of electromagnetic radiation, regarded as a particle with zero rest mass and charge, unit spin, and energy equal to the product of the frequency of the radiation and the Planck constant

























A bitter scent of decay
Photons burning away
Stained evening

Sunday 6 November 2016

Confection

CONFECTION

-noun
1. the act or process of compounding or mixing
2. any sweet preparation of fruit, nuts, etc., such as a preserve or a sweet
3. old-fashioned an elaborate article of clothing, especially for women
4. informal anything regarded as over-elaborate or frivolous
5. a medicinal drug sweetened with sugar, honey, etc.

























Buttery scones
Summery confection

Autumn comfort food

Saturday 5 November 2016

Grouse

GROUSE

-verb
1. (intr.) to grumble; complain
-noun
2. a persistent complaint

-noun
1. any gallinaceous bird of the family Tetraonidae, occurring mainly in the Northern hemisphere, having a stocky body and feathered legs and feet. They are popular game birds
-adj.
2. (Australian and New Zealand) (slang) excellent


























Lacking attention
He grouses away

A forsaken star

Friday 4 November 2016

Teetotal

TEETOTAL

-adj.
1. of, relating to, or practising abstinence from alcoholic drink
2. (dialect) . complete

























Looking at the waves
Waving back
A teetotal experience


Thursday 3 November 2016

Koumpounophobia


KOUMPOUNOPHOBIA

-noun
irrational and persistent fear of buttons


























Summer is fighting its last battle
Summoning koumpounophobia
In support of everything light


Wednesday 2 November 2016

Detrition

DETRITION

-noun
the act of rubbing or wearing away by friction

























Dawn
In an act of detrition

Night fritters away

Tuesday 1 November 2016

Arbitration

ARBITRATION

-noun
1. (law) . the hearing and determination of a dispute, especially an industrial dispute, by an impartial referee selected or agreed upon by the parties concerned
2. (international law) . the procedure laid down for the settlement of international disputes

























All games turned sour
They plead for arbitration

Promising to better behave