Excerpt

EXCERPT

–noun
1. a passage or quotation taken or selected from a book, document, film, or the like; extract.
–verb (used with object)
2. to take or select (a passage) from a book, film, or the like; extract.
3. to take or select passages from (a book, film, or the like); abridge by choosing representative sections.



History made excerpts
Of its own story
To puzzle historians
And dreamers alike.

Selkie

SELKIE

–noun
Scot.
a mythical creature that looks like a seal in water but assumes human form on land.



Here we are
Looking into each other’s minds
The selkie who has forgotten about being human
The human who has forgotten about being a seal
Land and water locked
By a moment’s mind lapse
Yet her eye is my eye
And my heart beat is hers by right

Counterfoil

COUNTERFOIL

–noun
Chiefly British .
a part of a bank check, money order, etc., that is kept by the issuer and on which a record of the transaction is made; stub.




Broken ruins
History counterfoil
Or puzzle?

Enervate

ENERVATE

–verb (used with object)
1. to deprive of force or strength; destroy the vigour of; weaken.
–adj.
2. without vigour, force, or strength; languid.




Moss.
Moss
And Time
Green sickness
Enervating stones,
Statues, into languid poses.

Oscitant

OSCITANT

-adj.
1. Yawning, as with drowsiness; gaping.
2. Drowsy or inattentive.
3. Dull, lazy, or negligent.






















Oscitant macaque
Makes for grooming
(Or snacking)
Opportunity

Crumb

CRUMB

–noun
1. a small particle of bread, cake, etc., that has broken off.
2. a small particle or portion of anything; fragment; bit.
3. the soft inner portion of a bread ( distinguished from crust).
4. crumbs, a cake topping made of sugar, flour, butter, and spice, usually crumbled on top of the raw batter and baked with the cake.
5. Slang . a contemptibly objectionable or worthless person.
–verb (used with object)
6. Cookery . to dress or prepare with crumbs.
7. to break into crumbs or small fragments.
8. to remove crumbs from




I have learnt
To scrub my memory
For crumbs of our story
Shaking them loose
To be lost to the drafts of times


The background picture is copyright of Willow of Willow Manor, who has put it forth as a writing prompt.
Join the writing fun at Magpie Tales.

Pluvial

PLUVIAL

-adj.
Of or relating to rain, especially much rain.






















Pluvial
Lime deposit
Bitter cries history
Scribbling stories over the stones
For keep.

Virga

VIRGA

-noun
Rain or snow that evaporates before hitting the ground.




Let's get
Soaked in ghost rain
Virga that teases our lips
And then deserts us
Leaving plants
Gasping for life

Blank

BLANK

–adj.
1. (of paper or other writing surface) having no marks; not written or printed on.
2. not filled in, as a printed form.
3. unrelieved or unbroken by ornament, opening, decoration, etc.
4. lacking some usual or completing feature.
5. (of a recording medium) containing no previously recorded information.
6. void of interest, variety, results, etc.
7. showing no attention, interest, or emotion.
8. disconcerted; nonplussed; speechless.
9. complete; utter; unmitigated.
10.Archaic . white; pale; colourless.
–noun
11.a place where something is lacking; an empty space.
12.a space in a printed form, test, etc., to be filled in.
13.a printed form containing such spaces.
14.a dash put in place of an omitted letter, series of letters, etc., especially to avoid writing a word considered profane or obscene.
15.Metalworking . a piece of metal ready to be drawn, pressed, or machined into a finished object.
16.Archery . the bull's-eye.
17.the object toward which anything is directed; aim; target.
18.blank cartridge.
–verb (used with object)
19.to cross out or delete, especially in order to invalidate or void (usually followed by “out” ).
20.Informal . to keep (an opponent) from scoring in a game.
21.Metalworking . to stamp or punch out of flat stock, as with a die.



I went to take a write
On a smooth blank sheet
But smoothness can be deceptive:
It swallowed me whole.
On white, no one will see me scream.

Philippic

PHILIPPIC

-noun
A bitter condemnation, usually in a speech.






















Lemur
Philippics
Come out full of teeth
And spit

Vagary

VAGARY

–noun
1.an unpredictable or erratic action, occurrence, course, or instance.
2.a whimsical, wild, or unusual idea, desire, or action.






















Vagaries would have it
Thus
A blowing of raspberries
As a mark of impertinence
To me
Just a waste of delights

Taxis

TAXIS

-noun
1. Movement of an organism towards or away from a stimulus.
2. Order, arrangement, or classification.
3. The manual repositioning of a displaced body part to its normal position, in a case of hernia, for example.






















Taxis
Is nonsense to her:
While she's supposed to be
An elegant creature
She chooses
Otherwise.

Callipygian

CALLIPYGIAN

–adj.
having well-shaped buttocks.























A callipygian crowd
At Stadio dei Marmi
Speaks of fascist love
For male anatomy.

Induction

INDUCTION

–noun
1. the act of inducing, bringing about, or causing.
2. the act of inducting; introduction; initiation.
3. formal installation in an office, benefice, or the like.
4. Logic.
a. any form of reasoning in which the conclusion, though supported by the premises, does not follow from them necessarily.
b. the process of estimating the validity of observations of part of a class of facts as evidence for a proposition about the whole class.
c. a conclusion reached by this process.
5. Also called mathematical induction. Mathematics. a method of proving a given property true for a set of numbers by proving it true for 1 and then true for an arbitrary positive integer by assuming the property true for all previous positive integers and applying the principle of mathematical induction.
6. a presentation or bringing forward, as of facts or evidence.
7. Electricity, Magnetism. the process by which a body having electric or magnetic properties produces magnetism, an electric charge, or an electromotive force in a neighbouring body without contact.
8. Embryology. the process or principle by which one part of the embryo influences the differentiation of another part.
9. Biochemistry. the synthesis of an enzyme in response to an increased concentration of its substrate in the cell.
10.an introductory unit in literary work, especially in an early play; prelude or scene independent of the main performance but related to it.
11.Archaic. a preface.
























Call it lust
Call it love
Call it induction if you must
Call it lust

Cashier

CASHIER

-verb trans.
To dismiss from service, especially with disgrace.
-noun
An employee who handles payments and receipts in a store, bank, or business.
























Stricken angel
Cashiered from service
All beauty stripped
By acid rains.

Fission

FISSION

–noun
1. the act of cleaving or splitting into parts.
2. Also called nuclear fission. Physics. the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into nuclei of lighter atoms, accompanied by the release of energy.
3. Biology. the division of an organism into new organisms as a process of reproduction.
–verb (used without object)
4. Physics. to undergo fission.
–verb (used with object)
5. Physics. to cause to undergo fission.























Fission at such cleft
Making blood run hot
A thermal storm
Raging through my system
Until age sets in.

Brindled

BRINDLED

–adj.
grey or tawny with darker streaks or spots.























Brindled love
Lounging in the sun
Dolce vita

Gule

GULE

-noun
The throat; the gullet.
-verb trans.
To give the colour of gules to.























A lovely bite
Pleasures the gule
And the eye alike.

Tine

TINE

–noun
a sharp, projecting point or prong, as of a fork.



Sounded the tine
Against my keyboard
For a tune.
It turned out that C
Had a çédille.

Vibrissa

VIBRISSA

-noun
1. one of the stiff hairs that are located especially about the nostrils or on other parts of the face in many mammals and that often serve as tactile organs
2. one of the bristly feathers near the mouth of many and especially insectivorous birds that may help to prevent the escape of insects


























He’d
Let
Them out
One by one
All his vibrissae
Fanned out around his sleeping face
Reading vibrations from a ghost or a lurking prey.

Murder

MURDER

-noun
1. The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.
2. Slang Something that is very uncomfortable, difficult, or hazardous.
3. A flock of crows.
-verb trans.
1. To kill (another human) unlawfully.
2. To kill brutally or inhumanly.
3. To put an end to; destroy.
4. To spoil by ineptness; mutilate.
5. Slang To defeat decisively; trounce.
-verb intr.
To commit murder.






















Murder, she said
Is a game of crows
Flying above a shallow grave
Trying to pick bones
Or a fight.

Tabby

TABBY

-noun
1. A domestic cat with a striped or brindled coat.
2. A domestic cat, especially a female one.
3. A spinster.
4. A spiteful or gossipy woman.
5. A fabric of plain weave.
6. A watered silk fabric.
7. A building material made of lime, oyster shells, and gravel.























A tabby but not a tabby
Yet a tabby (such a tabby too!)
But not a tabby, nor a tabby.
If pushed by neccessity,
She might use a tabby
(but a tabby she is not)

Fructuous

FRUCTUOUS

-adj.
Fruitful






















Collecting money?
Collecting sunshine?
At least one of these ventures
Is bound to be fructuous.

Osculate

OSCULATE

–verb (used without object)
1. to come into close contact or union.
2. Geometry. (of a curve) to touch another curve or another part of the same curve so as to have the same tangent and curvature at the point of contact.
–verb (used with object)
3. to bring into close contact or union.
4. Geometry. (of a curve) to touch (another curve or another part of the same curve) in osculation.
5. to kiss.






















In their clumsy
Yet ardent attempt
At osculating,
The lovers created light
And heat
Their own sun

Whilom

WHILOM

-adj.
former






















Others,
Whilom lovers,
Used those keys
Trying to find a way
Into eternal life.

Countenance

COUNTENANCE

–noun
1. appearance, especially the look or expression of the face
2. the face; visage.
3. calm facial expression; composure.
4. approval or favour; encouragement; moral support.
5. Obsolete . bearing; behaviour.
–verb (used with object)
6. to permit or tolerate
7. to approve, support, or encourage.






















Her countenance said it all
She’d seen angels
Again
Or
Ghosts
Or goodness knows it what this time
Her folks could not countenance such
Behaviour
Much
Longer
And had her locked in a room
Where she could see all her friends
Coming
Out
Walls
And hold her virtual tea parties
Without being an embarrassment.


The background picture is copyright of Willow of Willow Manor, who has put it forth as a writing prompt.
Join the writing fun at Magpie Tales.

Callithump

CALLITHUMP

-noun
1. A noisy, boisterous celebration or parade.
2. A mock serenade with pots, pans, kettles, etc., given for a newly married couple. Also known as charivari or shivaree.























The dead were known to go about
Callithumping well into the night
By order of irate neighbours
They got chained into their stone beds

Maul

MAUL

–noun
1. a heavy hammer, as for driving stakes or wedges.
2. Archaic . a heavy club or mace.
–verb (used with object)
3. to handle or use roughly.
4. to injure by a rough beating, shoving, or the like; bruise.
5. to split with a maul and wedge, as a wooden rail.






















Madonna
Mauled by time
Mauled by weather
Mauled by devotion
Stubborn.

Widdershins

WIDDERSHINS

-adv.
In a direction contrary to the natural one, especially contrary to the apparent course of the sun or counter-clockwise (in some places considered as unlucky or causing disaster). Also spelt “withershins”.






















Go, go, go,
Widdershins around the kirk
Once, twice, thrice if we must.
Listen to the organs blaring inside
Holy caterwauling
Attempting to block the winds,
The tempests raging at the door.


A complete (and edited) version of this poem was published on Every Day Poets last year.

Secular

SECULAR

–adj.
1. of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal.
2. not pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to sacred).
3. (of education, a school, etc.) concerned with nonreligious subjects.
4. (of members of the clergy) not belonging to a religious order; not bound by monastic vows (opposed to regular).
5. occurring or celebrated once in an age or century.
6. going on from age to age; continuing through long ages.

–noun
7. a layperson.
8. one of the secular clergy.























Secular saints
Hiding
Under the cloak of time

Ostensible

OSTENSIBLE

–adj.
1. outwardly appearing as such; professed; pretended.
2. apparent, evident, or conspicuous



Battered poppy
In a sea of green
Ostensible

Fertile

FERTILE

–adj.
1. bearing, producing, or capable of producing vegetation, crops, etc., abundantly; prolific.
2. bearing or capable of bearing offspring.
3. abundantly productive.
4. producing an abundance (usually followed by “of” or “in” ).
5. conducive to productiveness.
6. Biology .
a. fertilized, as an egg or ovum; fecundated.
b. capable of growth or development, as seeds or eggs.
7. Botany .
a. capable of producing sexual reproductive structures.
b. capable of causing fertilization, as an anther with fully developed pollen.
c. having spore-bearing organs, as a frond.
8. Physics . (of a nuclide) capable of being transmuted into a fissile nuclide by irradiation with neutrons: Uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile nuclides.
9. produced in abundance.























Fertile pods
Dispensing future dreams.
The cat turns over.

Étoile

ÉTOILE

-noun
1. a star or something shaped like a star.
2. prima ballerina.



She spins and turns
Flammable ballerina
So graceful in every stance
Of this intimate public drama
She spins and turns
Burnt by the lust of admirers
The heat in their eyes
Magma on their minds
She spins and turns
Slowly becoming étoile
Bright against the ballet night.


The picture is copyright Keith Carter and has been proposed as prompt for the Poetry Train by Terresa at Chocolate Chip Waffle.

Swain

SWAIN

–noun
1. a male admirer or lover.
2. a country lad.
3. a country gallant.




The swain swept her off her feet
Leaving her shoes and modesty behind
The swine left her standing at the altar
With a ready cocked gun.


The background picture is copyright of Willow of Willow Manor, who has put it forth as a writing prompt.
Join the writing fun at Magpie Tales.

Accrete

ACCRETE

-verb tr., intr.
To grow gradually by accumulation.























You can rule
Make it compulsory
To look the other way
To bury our head in sand
Wait!
That isn't sand.
Ashes! Ashes! Ashes!
Accreted in the air,
Accreted in strata!
No burying then
Or maybe just our dead
Killed by clouds
Killed by planes
Killed by rules
For economy's sake.


Envisat/MERIS/Miravi background image courtesy of the European Space Agency

Uncial

UNCIAL

–adj.
1. designating, written in, or pertaining to a form of majuscule writing having a curved or rounded shape and used chiefly in Greek and Latin manuscripts from about the 3rd to the 9th century a.d.
–noun
2. an uncial letter.
3. uncial writing.
4. a manuscript written in uncials.



All gilded beauty and ornate uncials
The book beckons from under its glass coffin
A reader’s kiss might wake it up
A loving stroke from fervent hands

Cathec

CATHEC

-verb tr.
To invest mental or emotional energy in an idea, object, or person.






















He'd infuse his wine
With his philosophy
Cathec all his life
Into a single glass
Knowledge laden ruby.

Hypocorism

HYPOCORISM

–noun
1. a pet name.
2. the practice of using a pet name.
3. the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by an adult.






















Her demeanour attracts
All manners of hypocorism.
She could not care less.

Radical

RADICAL

-adj.
1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental.
2. thoroughgoing or extreme, esp. as regards change from accepted or traditional forms.
3. favouring drastic political, economic, or social reforms.
4. forming a basis or foundation.
5. existing inherently in a thing or person.
6. Mathematics .
a. pertaining to or forming a root.
b. denoting or pertaining to the radical sign.
c. (of a function) not capable of being expressed exactly as a ratio of two polynomials (also called irrational)
7. Grammar . of or pertaining to a root.
8. Botany . of or arising from the root or the base of the stem.
–noun
9. a person who holds or follows strong convictions or extreme principles; extremist.
10.a person who advocates fundamental political, economic, and social reforms by direct and often uncompromising methods.
11.Mathematics .
a. a quantity expressed as a root of another quantity.
b. the set of elements of a ring, some power of which is contained in a given ideal.
c. radical sign: the symbol √ indicating extraction of a root of the quantity that follows it.
12.Chemistry .
a. Group: two or more atoms specifically arranged, as the hydroxyl group, –OH..
b. as in “free radical”: an atom or molecule that bears an unpaired electron and is extremely reactive, capable of engaging in rapid chain reactions that destabilize other molecules and generate many more free radicals: in the body, deactivated by antioxidants, uric acid, and certain enzyme activities.
13.Grammar . root, in particular
a. a morpheme that underlies an inflectional or derivational paradigm
b. such a form reconstructed for a parent language.
14.(in Chinese writing) one of 214 ideographic elements used in combination with phonetics to form thousands of different characters.























You like to focus
On hooligans,
Anarchists
Rioting,
Ravaging your body,
Breaking havoc:
Free radicals.
Against that unlawful lot
Only one cure:
Anti-oxydants!
Let them eat cake!
(and not your cells)
Let them eat cake!
Green tea cake.

Clastic

CLASTIC

–adj.
1. Biology . breaking up into fragments or separate portions; dividing into parts.
2. pertaining to an anatomical model made up of detachable pieces.
3. Geology. noting or pertaining to rock or rocks composed of fragments or particles of older rocks or previously existing solid matter; fragmental.






















Going clastic
Cells breaking up
Day after day
Age

Tephra

TEPHRA

–noun ( used with a plural verb)
Clastic volcanic material, as scoria, dust, etc., ejected during an eruption.






















Tephra catching a ride
On the wings of winds
Annoying planes.

Envisat view of the Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano tephra, courtesy of the European Space Agency

Asseverate

ASSEVERATE

-verb tr.
To affirm solemnly.



The old warehouse walls
Asseverate time passing,
The counting of days.

Poke

POKE

–verb (used with object)
1. to prod or push, especially with something narrow or pointed, as a finger, elbow, stick, etc.
2. to make (a hole, one's way, etc.) by or as by prodding or pushing.
3. to thrust or push.
4. to force, drive, or stir by or as by pushing or thrusting.
5. to thrust obtrusively.
–verb (used without object)
6. to make a pushing or thrusting movement with the finger, a stick, etc.
7. to extend or project (often followed by "out").
8. to thrust oneself obtrusively.
9. to search curiously; pry (often followed by “around” or “about”).
10.to go or proceed in a slow or aimless way (often followed by “along”).
–noun
11.a thrust or push.
12.Informal . a slow or dawdling person; slowpoke.

–noun
1. Chiefly Midland U.S. and Scot. . a bag or sack, especially a small one.
2. a wallet or purse.
3. Archaic . a pocket.

–noun
1. a projecting brim at the front of a bonnet, framing the face.
2. Also called poke bonnet. a bonnet or hat with such a brim.



Don’t poke me!
Said Amor
But Psyche would not listen
So he fled.
from “Amor and Psyche, the Alternative Story”)

Scarper

SCARPER

-verb intr.
To flee, especially without paying one's bills.






















When my husband returned last night
Hermes had to scarper so quickly
That he left a foot in the courtyard.
Most people might leave a shoe
Or an imprint in the tulip bed
It takes a god to abandon a limb.
We made a fountain out of it.

Frowsy

FROWSY

-adj.
1 : musty, stale
2 : having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance



Despite its
Fresh look
The oil proved frowsy
Ripe with rot
And mouldy
From disuse.

Milquetoast

MILQUETOAST

–noun (sometimes initial capital letter)
a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated or intimidated























The proffered wine
On tasting, proved to be
Nothing more than
A mere milquetoast
Easily overpowered
By all sorts of flavours
That had little to do
With its alleged qualities.

Vellicate

VELLICATE

-verb tr., intr.
1. To twitch or to cause to twitch.
2. To pluck, nip, irritate, etc.



Modern use of split infinitives
Would cause her to vellicate
Cracking her tombstone
A little deeper each time
While we blamed earthquakes.

Recluse

RECLUSE

noun
1. a person who lives in seclusion or apart from society, often for religious meditation.
2. Also, incluse. a religious voluntary immured in a cave, hut, or the like, or one remaining within a cell for life.
–adj.
3. shut off or apart from the world; living in seclusion, often for religious reasons.
4. characterized by seclusion; solitary.






















Guilty woman,
Lost in the forest,
Seduced by a god;
Despite her vows
And better sense.
That guilty woman,
Condemned to be recluse;
We sing of her sons,
Of their fight
Of the mighty city,
Founded on blood.
But everyone forgets
The woman
The woman who loved
When it was forbidden
The woman who was closed
Young and alive into a cell
And forgotten.

Batten

BATTEN

-verb
1. To fatten or to grow fat; to thrive and prosper at another's expense.
2. To fasten or secure using battens.
-noun
A long strip of wood, metal, or plastic used for strengthening something.






















Tipsy fragile god
In dire need of battens
Perennial marble.

Spiracle

SPIRACLE

–noun
1. a breathing hole; an opening by which a confined space has communication with the outer air; air hole.
2. Zoology .
a. an aperture or orifice through which air or water passes in the act of respiration, as the blowhole of a cetacean.
b. an opening in the head of sharks and rays through which water is drawn and passed over gills.
c. one of the external orifices of the tracheal respiratory system of certain invertebrates, usually on the sides of the body.



A spirited spiracle
Tells of an Etruscan tale
Or of someone's sense of humour.