Cancrine

CANCRINE

-adj.
1. Prosody : reading the same backwards as forwards. Palindromic.
2. Having the qualities of a crab; crablike.




Was it from eating to many crabs,
That Bach wrote sideways crawling canons,
Cancrine affairs that could be read any which way they pleased?

Apanthropinization

APANTHROPINIZATION

noun
Withdrawal from human concerns or the human words






















On the desert island
Temptations to indulge
In apanthropinization
Had a stronger pull.

Improcerous

IMPROCEROUS

-adj.
Having little height























It seemed that
Everywhere he looked
The wood sprouted
Improcerous creatures
To taunt his imagination.

Austerulous

AUSTERULOUS

-adj.
Somewhat or slightly brutal.

















Their love had an austerulous edge
Half passion half resentment
For might have otherwise been.

Courting couple courtesy of the New York Public Library.

Spectral

SPECTRAL

–adj.
1. of or pertaining to a specter; ghostly; phantom.
2. resembling or suggesting a specter.
3. of, pertaining to, or produced by a spectrum or spectra.
4. resembling or suggesting a spectrum or spectra.


















Looking at the edge
Where what is not starts to be:
Energy rainbows.
Memories of other lives.
A door into somewhere else.

Remnant

REMNANT

–noun
1. a remaining, usually small part, quantity, number, or the like.
2. a fragment or scrap.
3. a small, unsold or unused piece of cloth, lace, etc., as at the end of a bolt.
4. a trace; vestige: remnants of former greatness.
–adj.
5. remaining; leftover.





















Sending you a note
With a heart on its sleeve
Remnant of different times:
Indifferent times.

Amative

AMATIVE

adj.
Relating to or inclined toward love, especially sexual love; amorous.






















In this day,
Made special by confectioners
One could always hope that a chocolate laden quarry
Might prove amative.

Troth

TROTH

–noun
1. faithfulness, fidelity, or loyalty.
2. truth or verity.
3. one's word or promise, esp. in engaging oneself to marry.






















A word of You
Like a threat,
Bonding this body to that soul;
A tentative dance
Of mirrors and dusk.

Fritter

FRITTER

–verb (used with object)
1. to squander or disperse piecemeal; waste little by little (usually followed by "away").
2. to break or tear into small pieces or shreds.
–verb (used without object)
3. to dwindle, shrink, degenerate, etc. (often followed by "away").
4. to separate or break into fragments.
–noun
5. a small piece, fragment, or shred.
























[Let’s take…]

A leave
Of all innocence
Looking hard at realities
That fritter under our prying mind
Leaving rusty dust on your decayed lips.

Cocktail

COCKTAIL

–noun
1. any of various short mixed drinks, consisting typically of gin, whiskey, rum, vodka, or brandy, with different admixtures, as vermouth, fruit juices, or flavorings, usually chilled and frequently sweetened.
2. a portion of food, as seafood served with a sauce, a mixture of fruits, or juice, served as the appetizer course of a meal.
3. Pharmacology. a beverage or solution concocted of various drugs.
4. any eclectic mixture or miscellaneous collection.
–verb (used without object)
5. to drink cocktails, esp. at a cocktail party.
–adjective
6. (of women's clothing) styled for semiformal wear
7. of, pertaining to, used in, or suitable to the serving of cocktails
–noun
8. a horse with a docked tail.
9. a horse that is not a thoroughbred.
10.a man of little breeding who passes for a gentleman.
11.A species of rove beetle; -- so called from its habit of elevating the tail.























[Let's take...]

A drop
Of Singapore Sling
Potent like exotic sunsets
Dreaming of adventures not had
Burning regrets sharper than remorse.

Treasure

TREASURE

–noun
1. wealth or riches stored or accumulated, esp. in the form of precious metals, money, jewels, or plate.
2. wealth, rich materials, or valuable things.
3. any thing or person greatly valued or highly prized.
–verb (used with object)
4. to retain carefully or keep in store, as in the mind.
5. to regard or treat as precious; cherish.
6. to put away for security or future use, as money.























[Let's take...]

A walk
In our memories
Looking for lost treasures
Our mother's veil scent in the evening
Bitter sweet marmalade and torn teddy bears.


The veiled lady and teddy bear appear courtesy of the LIFE archive.
The wonderful marmalade shot was taken by Amanda Slater and used under a creative common license. Do go and see the original, which is pure sunshine.

Bite

BITE

–verb (used with object)
1. to cut, wound, or tear with the teeth.
2. to grip or hold with the teeth.
3. to sting, as does an insect.
4. to cause to smart or sting.
5. to sever with the teeth (often followed by “off”)
6. to start to eat (often followed by “into”).
7. to clamp the teeth firmly on or around (often followed by “on”).
8. Informal.
a. to take advantage of; cheat; deceive.
b. to annoy or upset; anger.
9. to eat into or corrode, as does an acid.
10.to cut or pierce with, or as with, a weapon.
11.Etching. to etch with acid (a copper or other surface) in such parts as are left bare of a protective coating.
12.to take firm hold or act effectively on.
13.Archaic. to make a decided impression on; affect.
–verb (used without object)
14.to press the teeth into something; attack with the jaws, bill, sting, etc.; snap.
15.Angling. (of fish) to take bait.
16.to accept an offer or suggestion, esp. one intended to trick or deceive.
17.Informal. to admit defeat in guessing.
18.to act effectively; grip; hold.
19.Slang. to be notably repellent, disappointing, poor, etc.; suck.
–noun
20.an act of biting.
21.a wound made by biting.
22.a cutting, stinging, or nipping effect.
23.a piece bitten off.
24.a small meal.
25.a portion severed from the whole.
26.a morsel of food.
27.the occlusion of one's teeth.
28.Machinery.
a.the catch or hold that one object or one part of a mechanical apparatus has on another.
b.a surface brought into contact to obtain a hold or grip, as in a lathe chuck or similar device.
c.the amount of material that a mechanical shovel or the like can carry at one time.
29.sharpness; incisiveness; effectiveness.
30.the roughness of the surface of a file.
31.Metalworking. the maximum angle, measured from the centre of a roll in a rolling mill, between a perpendicular and a line to the point of contact where a given object to be rolled will enter between the rolls.
























[Let's take...]

A bite
In the dark
Of what is yet to come
Draining juices from the bones
Finding new flavours in the clouds.

Mordant

MORDANT

–adj.
1. sharply caustic or sarcastic, as wit or a speaker; biting.
2. burning; corrosive.
3. having the property of fixing colours, as in dyeing.
–noun
4. a substance used in dyeing to fix the colouring matter, esp. a metallic compound, as an oxide or hydroxide, that combines with the organic dye and forms an insoluble coloured compound or lake in the fibre.
5. an adhesive substance for binding gold or silver leaf to a surface.
6. an acid or other corrosive substance used in etching to eat out the lines, areas, etc.
7. Music. A melodic embellishment consisting of a rapid alternation of a principal tone with the tone a half or a whole step below it, called single or short when the auxiliary tone occurs once and double or long when this occurs twice or more. Also spelled “mordent”.
–verb (used with object)
8. to impregnate or treat with a mordant.



[Let's take...]

A swim
In the puddles
Where our tears have gone dry
Salts and crystals aglow around us
Sharp and mordant like new found love.

Lichen

LICHEN

-noun
1. (Bot.) One of a class of cellular, flowerless plants, (technically called Lichenes), having no distinction of leaf and stem, usually of scaly, expanded, frond-like forms, but sometimes erect or pendulous and variously branched. They derive their nourishment from the air, and generate by means of spores. The species are very widely distributed, and form irregular spots or patches, usually of a greenish or yellowish color, upon rocks, trees, and various bodies, to which they adhere with great tenacity. They are often improperly called rock moss or tree moss.
2. (Med.) A name given to several varieties of skin disease, esp. to one characterized by the eruption of small, conical or flat, reddish pimples, which, if unchecked, tend to spread and produce great and even fatal exhaustion.



[Let's take...]

A step
Beyond reality
In the land of the mad
Where the purple lichen dwells
And forgotten sobs are music.

Lucullan

LUCULLAN

-adj.
rich; magnificent and luxurious




What a Lucullan feast was his shoulder.
For a nest.
Or a bite.

Nostalgia

NOSTALGIA

–noun
1. a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.
2. something that elicits or displays nostalgia.






















Nostalgia is a cat that sleeps,
Purring softly under your skin
Only to be startled
By an incomprehensible dream.

Cinereal

CINEREAL

-adj.
Grey, ashen in colour.
Medicine: Relating to the gray matter of the nervous system.























Your cinereal eyes
That twin fire that would not die
Still haunt my nights.

(Because of its darkness, you might experience problems visualizing the epainting - try varying the angle eye/screen ratio)

Slow

SLOW

–adj.
1. moving or proceeding with little or less than usual speed or velocity.
2. characterized by lack of speed.
3. taking or requiring a comparatively long time for completion.
4. requiring or taking a long time for growing, changing, or occurring; gradual.
5. sluggish in nature, disposition, or function.
6. dull of perception or understanding; mentally dull.
7. not prompt, readily disposed, or in haste (usually fol. by to or an infinitive).
8. burning or heating with little speed or intensity, as a fire or an oven.
9. slack; not busy.
10.having some quality that retards speed or causes movement, progress, work, etc., to be accomplished at less than the usual or expected rate of speed.
11.running at less than the proper rate of speed or registering less than the proper time, as a clock.
12.passing heavily or dragging, as time.
13.not progressive; behind the times.
14.dull, humdrum, uninteresting, or tedious.
15.Photography. requiring long exposure, as by having a small lens diameter or low film sensitivity.
16.(of the surface of a race track) sticky from a fairly recent rain and in the process of drying out.
–adv.
17.in a slow manner; slowly.
–verb (used with object)
18.to make slow or slower (often fol. by up or down).
19.to retard; reduce the advancement or progress of.
–verb (used without object)
20.to become slow or slower; slacken in speed (often fol. by up or down).



Slowly your hand lifts
Tracing a figure in air.
A sparrow in flight.

Fragrant

FRAGRANT

-adj.
1. having a pleasant scent or aroma; sweet-smelling; sweet-scented.
2. delightful; pleasant.






















I shall drink your soul
Fragrant and dark as berries.
Mist wine in my cup.

Aurora

AURORA

-noun
1. A luminous atmospheric phenomenon appearing as streamers or bands of light sometimes visible in the night sky in northern or southern regions of the earth. It is thought to be caused by charged particles from the sun entering the earth's magnetic field and stimulating molecules in the atmosphere.
2. The dawn.



Fly
with me
in the shadow
In the gloom where the astromaid sings
An aurora for canopy