Wednesday 28 February 2018

Narrow

NARROW

-adj.
1. small in breadth, in comparison to length
2. limited in range or extent
3. limited in outlook; lacking breadth of vision
4. limited in means or resources; meagre
5. barely adequate or successful
6. painstakingly thorough; minute
7. (finance) . denoting an assessment of liquidity as including notes and coin in circulation with the public, banks' till money, and banks' balances
8. (dialect) over careful with money; parsimonious
9. (phonetics)
a. (of a speech sound) pronounced with considerable muscular effort and having relatively precise accuracy of articulation and considerable duration (also called tense)
b. relating to or denoting a transcription used to represent phonetic rather than phonemic distinctions
c. denoting a vowel pronounced with the lips relatively close together (also called close)
10. (of agricultural feeds) especially rich in protein
-verb
11. to make or become narrow; limit; restrict
- noun
12. a narrow place, in particular for a pass or strait

























In your dreams of lies
Floats a waterlily, the colour of air
Among polluted narrows
Shards of discarded truths

An inconvenient burden of hope



Tuesday 27 February 2018

Especially

ESPECIALLY

-adv.
1. in particular; specifically
2. very much

























The sun is falling
Over the silence in the country
The plain of flowers a turbulent child
Fading in the light of shadows.
A horror of the world
Especially watching winter lie dry.
Its mass of blue light and water
Turning to a stream of cold green flowers.

Monday 26 February 2018

Dull

DULL

-adj.
1. slow to think or understand; stupid
2. lacking in interest
3. lacking in perception or the ability to respond; insensitive
4. lacking sharpness; blunt
5. not acute, intense, or piercing
6. (of weather) not bright or clear; cloudy
7. not active, busy, or brisk
8. lacking in spirit or animation; listless
9. (of colour) lacking brilliance or brightness; sombre
10. not loud or clear; muffled
11. (medicine) . (of sound elicited by percussion, not resonant
-verb
12. to make or become dull

























Paper rats flutter on a wall
Dull days taking flight on dove wings
Tulips welcoming spring

Sunday 25 February 2018

Laurel

LAUREL

-noun
1. Also called: bay, true laurel. any lauraceous tree of the genus Laurus, such as the bay tree (see bay4) and L. canariensis, of the Canary Islands and Azores
2. any lauraceous plant
3. (plural) a wreath of true laurel, worn on the head as an emblem of victory or honour in classical times
4. (plural) honour, distinction, or fame
-verb
5. (trans.) to crown with laurels

























The grace of spring
Laurel buds awaiting bloom
Amongst temples and ruins
And in delicate infusion




Saturday 24 February 2018

Dawdle

DAWDLE

-verb
1. (intr.) to be slow or lag behind
2. (when trans,, often followed by “away”) to waste (time); trifle

























Rain goes
And the days dawdle by
In long wet naps
Dreaming of summer


Friday 23 February 2018

Inner

INNER

-adj. (prenominal)
1. being or located further inside
2. happening or occurring inside
3. relating to the soul, mind, spirit, etc.
4. more profound or obscure; less apparent
5. exclusive or private
6. (chemistry) . (of a compound) having a cyclic structure formed or apparently formed by reaction of one functional group in a molecule with another group in the same molecule
-noun
7. (archery) . also called: red archery
a. the red innermost ring on a target
b. a shot which hits this ring
























Dust settling inside the premises
The monuments here dissolve
Their inner grace dimmed
People whisper by, eyes on their phone

Thursday 22 February 2018

Facet

FACET

-noun
1. any of the surfaces of a cut gemstone
2. an aspect or phase, as of a subject or personality
3. (architecture) . the raised surface between the flutes of a column
4. any of the lenses that make up the compound eye of an insect or other arthropod
5. (anatomy) . any small smooth area on a hard surface, as on a bone
-verb

6. (trans.) to cut facets in (a gemstone)



















Bounced on taupe shards, we weave promises
My eyes, facetted skies, shake lights
Overwhelming but still just short of night
Darkness is closing in, my love - but just a little

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Forgo

FORGO

-verb
1.to give up or do without
2. (archaic) to leave


























Forgo doubt
And bloom
Even in darkness
Especially in darkness






Tuesday 20 February 2018

Precipice

PRECIPICE
[ˈprɛsɪpɪs ]

-noun
1. the steep sheer face of a cliff or crag
2. the cliff or crag itself

3. a precarious situation

























Cultivating
The art of
Precipice
For thrills





Monday 19 February 2018

Extemporize

EXTEMPORIZE

-verb
1. to perform, speak, or compose (an act, speech, piece of music, etc.) without planning or preparation
2. to use (a temporary solution) for an immediate need; improvise

























Balancing act
Always on the brink of
Disaster or sublime
Extemporized life


Sunday 18 February 2018

Rosemary

ROSEMARY

-noun
an aromatic European shrub, Rosmarinus officinalis, widely cultivated for its grey-green evergreen leaves, which are used in cookery for flavouring and yield a fragrant oil used in the manufacture of perfumes: family Lamiaceae (labiates). 

























Hill companion
From invasive hedgerow
Singing in the sun

Mad intoxicating rosemary

Saturday 17 February 2018

Bore

BORE

-verb
1. to produce (a hole) in (a material) by use of a drill, auger, or other cutting tool
2. to increase the diameter of (a hole), as by an internal turning operation on a lathe or similar machine
3. (trans.) to produce (a hole in the ground, tunnel, mine shaft, etc.) by digging, drilling, cutting, etc.
4. (intr.) (informal) (of a horse or athlete in a race) to push other competitors in order to try to get them out of the way
-noun
5. a hole or tunnel in the ground, in particular one drilled in search of minerals, oil, etc.
6.
a. a circular hole in a material produced by drilling, turning, or drawing
b. the diameter of such a hole
7.
a. the hollow part of a tube or cylinder, in particular of a gun barrel
b. the diameter of such a hollow part; calibre
8. (Australian) an artesian well

-verb
1. (trans.) to tire or make weary by being dull, repetitious, or uninteresting
-noun
2. a dull, repetitious, or uninteresting person, activity, or state

-noun
a high steep-fronted wave moving up a narrow estuary, caused by the tide


















He went and bore a
Cat-shaped hole

In our heart


Friday 16 February 2018

Modicum

MODICUM

-noun

a small amount or portion

























Looking for a modicum of calm
Amidst chaos
I select abstraction and white noise

Thursday 15 February 2018

Stride

STRIDE

-noun
1. a long step or pace
2. the space measured by such a step
3. a striding gait
4. an act of forward movement by an animal, completed when the legs have returned to their initial relative positions
5. progress or development
6. a regular pace or rate of progress
7. (rowing) the distance covered between strokes
8. (jazz) a piano style characterized by single bass notes on the first and third beats and chords on the second and fourth. Also called: stride piano 
9. (plural) (informal, mainly Australian) men's trousers
-verb
10. (intr.) to walk with long regular or measured paces, as in haste, etc.
11. (trans.) to cover or traverse by striding
12. (often followed by “over”, “across”, etc.) to cross (over a space, obstacle, etc.) with a stride
13. (intr.) (rowing) to achieve the desired rhythm in a racing shell
























Dawn has jogged past
Leaving sweat in her stride

All over the greenery

Wednesday 14 February 2018

Dot

DOT

-noun
1. a small round mark made with or as with a pen, etc; spot; speck; point
2. anything resembling a dot; a small amount
3. the mark (˙) that appears above the main stem of the letters i, j
4. (music)
a. the symbol (·) placed after a note or rest to increase its time value by half
b. this symbol written above or below a note indicating that it must be played or sung staccato
5. (mathematics, logic)
a. the symbol (.) indicating multiplication or logical conjunction
b. a decimal point
6. the symbol (·) used, in combination with the symbol for dash (–), in the written representation of Morse and other telegraphic codes
-verb
7. (trans.) to mark or form with a dot
8. (trans.) to scatter or intersperse (with dots or something resembling dots)
11. (intr.) to make a dot or dots

-noun
(civil law) a woman's dowry

























Love is in the air
Carried by dots

No need for anything else






Tuesday 13 February 2018

Closure

CLOSURE

-noun
1. the act of closing or the state of being closed
2. an end or conclusion
3. something that closes or shuts, such as a cap or seal for a container
4. (in a deliberative body) a procedure by which debate may be halted and an immediate vote taken
5. (mainly US)
a. the resolution of a significant event or relationship in a person's life
b. a sense of contentment experienced after such a resolution
6. (geology) the vertical distance between the crest of an anticline and the lowest contour that surrounds it
7. (phonetics) the obstruction of the breath stream at some point along the vocal tract, such as the complete occlusion preliminary to the articulation of a stop
8. (logic)
a. the closed sentence formed from a given open sentence by prefixing universal or existential quantifiers to bind all its free variables
b. the process of forming such a closed sentence
9. (mathematics)
a. the smallest closed set containing a given set
b. the operation of forming such a set
10. (psychology) the tendency, first noted by Gestalt psychologists, to see an incomplete figure like a circle with a gap in it as more complete than it is
-verb
11. (trans.) (in a deliberative body) to end (debate) by closure

























A breach in reality
Some type of closure
Made to dissuade thieves
From wondering too much

And kids from venturing too far

Monday 12 February 2018

Pigment

PIGMENT

-noun
1. a substance occurring in plant or animal tissue and producing a characteristic colour, such as chlorophyll in green plants and haemoglobin in red blood
2. any substance used to impart colour
3. a powder that is mixed with a liquid to give a paint, ink, etc.






















Urban tattoo
Pigment on a wall

If only virtually




Virtual collage made with PhotoFunia

Sunday 11 February 2018

Thyme

THYME

-noun
any of various small shrubs of the temperate genus Thymus, having a strong mint-like or lemon-like odour, small leaves, and white, pink, or red flowers: family Lamiaceae (labiates)












Crawling thyme
Discreet yet pungent
Brings up memories

Saturday 10 February 2018

Donzel

DONZEL

-noun
(archaic) a man of high birth

























Despite his unknown origins
He plays the donzel
And requests minions

And a fawning entourage

Friday 9 February 2018

Keyboard

KEYBOARD

-noun
1. a complete set of keys, usually hand-operated, as on a piano, organ, computer, typewriter, or typesetting machine
2. (often plural) a musical instrument, in particular when electronic, played by means of a keyboard
-verb
3. to set (a text, etc.) in type, onto magnetic tape, or into some other medium, by using a keyboard machine

























Life’s keyboard
Sixty-three rocks
With roots on a ridge
Little dirt under fingers

Tapping away time.

Thursday 8 February 2018

Trough

TROUGH

-noun
1. a narrow open container, in particular one in which food or water for animals is put
2. a narrow channel, gutter, or gulley
3. a narrow depression either in the land surface, ocean bed, or between two successive waves
4. (meteorology) an elongated area of low pressure, in particular an extension of a depression
5. a single or temporary low point; depression
6. (physics) the portion of a wave, such as a light wave, in which the amplitude lies below its average value
7. (economics) the lowest point or most depressed stage of the trade cycle
-verb
8. (intr.) (informal) to eat, consume, or take greedily

























Mood in a trough
A quiet casualty
To word wars
And influence conflicts

Wednesday 7 February 2018

Drain

DRAIN

-noun
1. a pipe or channel that carries off water, sewage, etc.
2. an instance or cause of continuous diminution in resources or energy; depletion
3. (surgery) a device, such as a tube, for insertion into a wound, incision, or bodily cavity to drain off pus, etc.
4. (electronics) the electrode region in a field-effect transistor into which majority carriers flow from the interelectrode conductivity channel
-verb
5. (trans.; often followed by “off”) to draw off or remove (liquid) from
6. (intr.; often followed by “away”) to flow (away) or filter (off)
7. (intr.) to dry or be emptied as a result of liquid running off or flowing away
8. (trans.) to drink the entire contents of (a glass, cup, etc.)
9. (trans.) to consume or make constant demands on (resources, energy, etc.); exhaust; sap
10. (intr.) to disappear or leave, in particular if gradually
11. (trans.) (of a river, etc.) to carry off the surface water from (an area)
12. (intr.) (of an area) to discharge its surface water into rivers, streams, etc.

























The attraction is mutual
And with such a lovely colour

I am loath to drain my glass

Tuesday 6 February 2018

Retrench

RETRENCH

-verb
1. to reduce or curtail (costs); economize
2. (trans.) to shorten, delete, or abridge
3. (trans.) to protect by a retrenchment

























Even death has a cost
And attracts taxes
So spooks had to retrench
Despite carnival

Monday 5 February 2018

Overt

OVERT

-adj.
1. open to view; observable
2. (law) open; deliberate.















Looming large
An overt blue moon
In a greyish hue of brown

Refusing to howl

Sunday 4 February 2018

Parsley

PARSLEY

-noun
1. a Southern European umbelliferous plant, Petroselinum crispum, widely cultivated for its curled aromatic leaves, which are used in cooking
2. any of various similar and related plants, such as fool's-parsley, stone parsley, and cow parsley

























So humble and fragrant
The taste of spring in the rain

Flat-leaved parsley

Saturday 3 February 2018

Rueful

RUEFUL

-adj.
1. feeling or expressing sorrow or repentance
2. inspiring sorrow or pity

























With sun still straight and its crystals too eager to break out
The cat is laying on the table
A red and white affair with teeth
And apologizing but only in your rueful dreams

Friday 2 February 2018

Goad

GOAD

-noun
1. a sharp pointed stick for urging on cattle, etc.
2. anything that acts as a spur or incitement
-verb
3. (trans.) to drive with or as if with a goad; spur; incite

























Nature's fuzzy spur
Goading spring onwards

Thursday 1 February 2018

Divest

DIVEST

-verb (trans.; usually followed by “of”)
1. to strip (of clothes)
2. to deprive or dispossess
3. (property law) to take away an estate or interest in property vested in (a person)
























Passions are what captivates and compels us
To ere where nothing grows and where
A long walk might send us all to hell.
It's inaction we're reading on a bleak shore
Divested of what it means to be seen
Trapped waist deep in spent ashes

Loving each other through the act of loathing.