Pother

POTHER

-noun
1. A commotion or fuss.
2. Mental turmoil.
3. A smothering cloud of dust or smoke.
-verb tr.
4. To confuse or worry someone.
-verb intr.
5. To worry or fuss.



Festive pother
Howling in my ears.
I can't hear the snow sing.

Snare

SNARE

–noun
1. a device, often consisting of a noose, for capturing small game.
2. anything serving to entrap or entangle the unwary; trap.
3. Surgery. a wire noose for removing tumours or the like by the roots or at the base.
–verb (used with object)
4. to catch with a snare; entangle.
5. to catch or involve by trickery or wile

–noun
1. one of the strings of gut or of tightly spiralled metal stretched across the skin of a snare drum.




What is left of our souls
Caught in a snare of dreams?
Two crows fighting over carrion,
A handful of sand
Shining in the hand of time.

Eject

EJECT

–verb (used with object)
1. to drive or force out; expel, as from a place or position.
2. to dismiss, as from office or occupancy.
3. to evict, as from property.
4. to throw out, as from within; throw off.
–verb (used without object)
5. to propel oneself from a damaged or malfunctioning airplane, as by an ejection seat























The sea drove against the rocks
As if trying to eject
Frothy rage, unspent passion
For some treacherous mermaid.

Scrawl

SCRAWL

–verb (used with object)
1. to write or draw in a sprawling, awkward manner.
–verb (used without object)
2. to write awkwardly, carelessly, or illegibly.
–noun
3. awkward, careless, or illegible handwriting.
4. something scrawled, as a letter or a note.























To
Crawl
Under
Your
Skin
Scrawling my name in
To make you mine,
Breathing in your perfume.

Tide

TIDE

–noun
1. the periodic rise and fall of the waters of the ocean and its inlets, produced by the attraction of the moon and sun, and occurring about every 12 hours.
2. the inflow, outflow, or current of water at any given place resulting from the waves of tides.
3. flood tide.
4. a stream or current.
5. anything that alternately rises and falls, increases and decreases, etc.
6. current, tendency, or drift, as of events or ideas.
7. any extreme or critical period or condition.
8. a season or period in the course of the year, day, etc. (now used chiefly in combination)
9. Ecclesiastical. a period of time that includes and follows an anniversary, festival, etc.
10.Archaic. a suitable time or occasion.
11.Obsolete. an extent of time.
–verb (used without object)
12.to flow as the tide; flow to and fro.
13.to float or drift with the tide.
–verb (used with object)
14.to carry, as the tide does.

–verb (used without object)
Archaic.
1. To happen or befall.























Tide of ideas
Slurping away at time.
Day rises.

Maelstrom

MAELSTROM

–noun
1.a large, powerful, or violent whirlpool.
2.a restless, disordered, or tumultuous state of affairs
3.(initial capital letter ) a famous hazardous whirlpool off the NW coast of Norway.






















A maelstrom of
Haphazard incantations
Created a portal
In the old temple,
Swallowing
Twenty seven hapless tourists
And two smirking camels.

Yuletide

YULETIDE

–noun
1. the Christmas season.
–adj.
2. of or pertaining to the Christmas season.



Yuletide ornaments
Forgotten and unloved.
Darkness has eaten us all.


Never mind the gloom!
Best wishes too all.

Tepid

TEPID

-adj.
1. moderately warm; lukewarm.
2. characterized by a lack of force or enthusiasm:






















Golden sand tattoos,
Washed away in tepid waves
And salt on your skin.

Implacable

IMPLACABLE

-adj.
not to be appeased, mollified, or pacified; inexorable






















Implacable rain,
Dying leaves clogging up drains:
Streets hiss and gurgle.

Anomaly

ANOMALY

–noun
1. a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.
2. someone or something anomalous.
3. an odd, peculiar, or strange condition, situation, quality, etc.
4. an incongruity or inconsistency.
5. Astronomy. a quantity measured in degrees, defining the position of an orbiting body with respect to the point at which it is nearest to or farthest from its primary.
6. Meteorology. the amount of deviation of a meteorological quantity from the accepted normal value of that quantity.
7. Grammar. irregularity.



With him,
Anomaly was the norm
Such was the delight he took
In his inherent uniqueness.

Background using a picture by Tom Check

Evanescent

EVANESCENT

–adj.
1. vanishing; fading away; fleeting.
2. tending to become imperceptible; scarcely perceptible.






















Evanescent forms
Capture her fleeting focus.
Warm heater mirages.

Postiche

POSTICHE

–adj.
1. superadded, esp. inappropriately, as a sculptural or architectural ornament.
2. artificial, counterfeit, or false.
–noun
3. an imitation or substitute.
4. pretence; sham.
5. a false hairpiece.






















He
Stole
A mask of gorilla
On the run,
To stage
An impromptu spoof
Of Euripides’ Medea
At a party:
Posthaste pastiche
With a postiche.

Allay

ALLAY

–verb (used with object)
1. to put (fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc.) to rest; calm; quiet.
2. to lessen or relieve; mitigate; alleviate



To hold your hand,
Steady your heart beat,
Allay untold worries,
Beat up the monsters in your closet:
That is love.

Bench

BENCH

–noun
1. a long seat for several persons.
2. a seat occupied by an official, especially a judge.
3. such a seat as a symbol of the office and dignity of an individual judge or the judiciary.
4. the office or dignity of various other officials, or the officials themselves.
5. Sports.
a. the seat on which the players of a team sit during a game while not playing.
b. The quality and number of the players of a team who are usually used as substitutes.
6. Informal.: Benchpress - A lift in weightlifting that is executed from a horizontal position on a bench, in which the weight is lifted from the chest to arm's length and then lowered back to the chest.
7. Also called workbench - the strong worktable of a carpenter or other mechanic.
8. a platform on which animals are placed for exhibition, especially at a dog show.
9. a contest or exhibition of dogs; dog show.
10.Physical Geography. a shelflike area of rock with steep slopes above and below.
11.Mining. a step or working elevation in a mine.
12.Also called berm - any level strip of ground at the summit or sides, or along the base, of a slope. .
–verb (used with object)
13.to furnish with benches.
14.to seat on a bench or on the bench.
15.to place (a show dog or other animal) in exhibition.
16.to cut away the working faces of (a mine or quarry) in benches.
17.Sports. to remove from a game or keep from participating in a game






















You and I
Reading on a bench
Apart yet together
Bliss.

Perspective

PERSPECTIVE

–noun
1. a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface.
2. a picture employing this technique, especially one in which it is prominent.
3. a visible scene, especially one extending to a distance; vista.
4. the state of existing in space before the eye.
5. the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship.
6. the faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship
7. a mental view or prospect:.
–adj.
8. of or pertaining to the art of perspective, or represented according to its laws.






















Perspective
Is but a room
With a view.
A point of view

Background picture - in its original state - by MacJewell

Voyage

VOYAGE

–noun
1. a course of travel or passage, especially a long journey by water to a distant place.
2. a passage through air or space, as a flight in an airplane or space vehicle.
3. a journey or expedition from one place to another by land.
4. Often, voyages. journeys or travels as the subject of a written account, or the account itself.
5. Obsolete. an enterprise or undertaking.
–verb (used without object)
6. to make or take a voyage; travel; journey.
–verb (used with object)
7. to traverse by a voyage






















Time
Voyage
Along a line
Ouroboros
Life

Background from an original by Rubyblossom

Glare

GLARE

–noun
1. a very harsh, bright, dazzling light.
2. a fiercely or angrily piercing stare.
3. dazzling or showy appearance; showiness.
–verb (used without object)
4. to shine with or reflect a very harsh, bright, dazzling light.
5. to stare with a fiercely or angrily piercing look.
6. Archaic. to appear conspicuous; stand out obtrusively.
–verb (used with object)
7. to express with a glare



A fierce glare
Dazzling worlds into submission.
Cold ice in my veins.

Shōki was created by Okumura Masanobu

Paucity

PAUCITY

-noun
1 fewness in number.
2 nearly lacking; dearth.



Paucity of sentiment,
Straining life to a maximum:
So much love, in theory,
Yet so little of the real thing
To go by.


Background picture by Piotr Zurek

Cookie

COOKIE

–noun
1. a small cake made from stiff, sweet dough rolled and sliced or dropped by spoonfuls on a large, flat pan (cookie sheet) and baked.
2. Informal. dear; sweetheart (a term of address, usually connoting affection).
3. Slang.
a. a person: a smart cookie; a tough cookie.
b. an alluring young woman.
4. Computers. a message, or segment of data, containing information about a user, sent by a Web server to a browser and sent back to the server each time the browser requests a Web page.
5. South Atlantic States (chiefly North Carolina). a doughnut.
6. Scot. a bun.






















Autumn
Perfect excuse
To nibble on cookies
Especially if shaped like leaves.
Pleasure.

Rhopalic

RHOPALIC

-adj.
Having each successive word longer by a letter or syllable.



I
Do
Not
Live
madly
- Really -
Although...
Strangely
Soliciting
Distraction.

Background built from two images by Rubyblossom

Devour

DEVOUR

–verb (used with object)
1. to swallow or eat up hungrily, voraciously, or ravenously.
2. to consume destructively, recklessly, or wantonly.
3. to engulf or swallow up.
4. to take in greedily with the senses or intellect.
5. to absorb or engross wholly






















Evening has fallen
Upon exhausted pilgrims.
Darkness devours light.

Aprosexia

APROSEXIA

-noun
abnormal inability to sustain attention






















He claimed he couldn’t possibly have
Something as preposterous as aprosexia,
Lack of attention being normal for a cat…
Oh, look! Grasshopper!

Stroke

STROKE

–noun
1. the act or an instance of striking, as with the fist, a weapon, or a hammer; a blow.
2. a hitting of or upon anything.
3. a striking of a clapper or hammer, as on a bell.
4. the sound produced by this.
5. a throb or pulsation, as of the heart.
6. Also called apoplexy, cerebrovascular accident. Pathology. a blockage or hemorrhage of a blood vessel leading to the brain, causing inadequate oxygen supply and, depending on the extent and location of the abnormality, such symptoms as weakness, paralysis of parts of the body, speech difficulties, and, if severe, loss of consciousness or death.
7. something likened to a blow in its effect, as in causing pain, injury, or death; an attack of apoplexy or paralysis.
8. a destructive discharge of lightning.
9. a vigorous movement, as if in dealing a blow.
10.Sports. a hitting of a ball, as by the swing of a racquet in tennis or the controlled jabbing or thrusting with the cue in pool and billiards.
11.a single complete movement, esp. one continuously repeated in some process.
12.Machinery.
a. one of a series of alternating continuous movements of something back and forth over or through the same line.
b. the complete movement of a moving part, esp. a reciprocating part, in one direction.
c. the distance traversed in such a movement.
d. a half revolution of an engine during which the piston travels from one extreme of its range to the other.
13.Swimming.
a. a type or method of swimming.
b. each of the successive movements of the arms and legs in propelling the body through the water.
14.Rowing.
a. a single pull of the oar.
b. the manner or style of moving the oars.
c. Also called stroke oar. the crew member nearest to the stern of the boat, to whose strokes those of the other crew members must conform.
15.a movement of a pen, pencil, brush, graver, or the like.
16.a mark traced by or as if by one movement of a pen, pencil, brush, or the like.
17.a distinctive or effective touch in a literary composition.
18.a single or minimal act, piece, or amount of work, activity, etc.
19.an attempt to attain some object.
20.a measure adopted for a particular purpose.
21.a keystroke.
22.a feat or achievement.
23.a sudden or chance happening, as of luck or fortune.
–verb (used with object)
24.to mark with a stroke or strokes, as of a pen; cancel, as by a stroke of a pen.
25.Rowing.
a. to row as a stroke oar of (a boat or crew).
b. to set the stroke for the crew of (a boat).
26.Sports. to hit (a ball), as with a deliberate, smooth swing of a bat or club.

–verb (used with object)
1. to pass the hand or an instrument over (something or somebody) lightly or with little pressure; rub gently, as in soothing or caressing.
2. Informal. to promote feelings of self-approval in; flatter.
–noun
3. an act or instance of stroking; a stroking movement.






















In the air
The first stroke of frost
Paints wild lace and ferns
On my car’s windows

Further

FURTHER

-adv.
1. at or to a greater distance; farther.
2. at or to a more advanced point; to a greater extent.
3. in addition; moreover.
–adj.
4. more distant or remote; farther.
5. more extended.
6. additional; more.
–verb (used with object)
7. to help forward (a work, undertaking, cause, etc.); promote; advance; forward



Semi interment had furthered decay
Gratifying her with a smallpoxed face
She had not been meant to boast.
She smiled through the outrage, though,
Knowing to be still far more beautiful
Than the tourists that gaped at her each day.

Saucy

SAUCY

-adj.
1. impertinent; insolent.
2. pert; boldly smart



She relished in being saucy
Her mind incredibly pert and sharp:
My heart still hurts from old letters she sent
Mirth and sorrow brought together
In a most outrageous bouquet.

Lighthouse

LIGHTHOUSE

-noun
1. a tower or other structure displaying or flashing a very bright light for the guidance of ships in avoiding dangerous areas, in following certain routes, etc.
2. either of two cylindrical metal towers placed forward on the forecastle of the main deck of a sailing ship, to house the port and starboard running lights.



Your love guides me well
Through torment and calm alike.
Focus in the night.
Clearing out the waves of life
With your smile for a lighthouse.

Crown Point Lighthouse appears courtesy of The Library of Congress

Kvetch

KVETCH

-noun
1. a person who complains a great deal.
2. a complaint.
-verb
3. complain.






















Infernal yowls hiss:
Winds kvetching at my window.
Chastised leaves whimper.

Rapporteur

RAPPORTEUR

-noun
1. Someone appointed by an organization, group, or committee to investigate or monitor an issue, and compile and present the findings.
2. One who is designated to record the deliberations of a meeting.























The rapporteur had gone a little overboard
Going graphic where a mere memo might have sufficed.

Wainscot

WAINSCOT

–noun
1. wood, especially oak and usually in the form of panelling, for lining interior walls.
2. the lining itself, especially as covering the lower portion of a wall.
3. a dado, esp. of wood, lining an interior wall.
4. British. oak of superior quality and cut, imported from the Baltic countries for fine woodwork.
–verb (used with object)
5. to line the walls of (a room, hallway, etc.) with or as if with woodwork






















An inside-out house:
Wainscot on the outside;
Wild dreams roaming inside,
Like so many indomitable winds.

Samurai

SAMURAI

-noun
1. a member of the hereditary warrior class in feudal Japan.
2. a retainer of a daimyo.























Paper samurai
Unravelling on the wall
Robbed of sword by rain.

Nimble

NIMBLE

-adj.
1. quick and light in movement; moving with ease; agile; active; rapid.
2. quick to understand, think, devise, etc.
3. cleverly contrived






















Nimble dancers
In the flickering light
Celebrating.
Sun breaking free from darkness
Promises of life, once more.