Darkle

DARKLE
[DAHR-kuhl]

-verb trans., intr.
To make or become dark, indistinct, or gloomy.

























Weather darkles,
Bringing sleep in its wings
Warm cushion.

Admix

ADMIX
[ad-MIKS]

-verb trans.
To mix or blend.

























Light and frost
Admix into a freize
So many stars.

Prognathous

PROGNATHOUS
[PROG-nuh-thuhs, prog-NAY-thuhs]

-adj.
1. Protruding outwards.
2. Having a jaw that protrudes outwards.

























Tourists and ghosts shelter
Prognathous mountain range

Ectype

ECTYPE
[EK-tahyp]

-noun
A reproduction; copy.




Going through ectypes
Of a story too remote to read
Imagining the original colours

Procellous

PROCELLOUS
[proh-SEL-uhs]

-adj.
Stormy, as the sea.




Procellous times
Bitter politics
And cold draughts.

Supine

SUPINE

-adj.
1. lying on the back, face or front upward.
2. inactive, passive, or inert, especially from indolence or indifference.
3. (of the hand) having the palm upward.



Supine dolour
So exquisite
So aesthetic
They've given him flowers

Sublunary

SUBLUNARY

-adj.
1. situated beneath the moon or between the earth and the moon.
2. characteristic of or pertaining to the earth; terrestrial.
3. mundane or worldly























The holiday season
Has taken a turn for the sublunary,
Holiness all gone.


Nice holidays to you all nevertheless.

Trammel

TRAMMEL

-noun
1. Usually, trammels. a hindrance or impediment to free action; restraint.
2. an instrument for drawing ellipses.
3. Also called tram. a device used to align or adjust parts of a machine.
4. trammel net. a three-layered fishing net, the middle layer of which is fine-meshed, the others coarse-meshed, so that fish attempting to pass through the net will become entangled in one or more of the meshes.
5. a fowling net.
6. a contrivance hung in a fireplace to support pots or kettles over the fire.
7. a fetter or shackle, especially one used in training a horse to amble.
-verb (used with object)
8. to involve or hold in trammels; restrain.
9. to catch or entangle in or as in a net.




Feeling trammelled
By festivities
And excess food.

Deckled

DECKLED

-adj.
having a rough edge; used of handmade paper or paper resembling handmade




Deckled quote
Looking all the wiser
For its rough spots.

Decrepitude

DECREPITUDE
[dih-krep-i-tood, -tyood]

-noun
decrepit condition; dilapidated state; feebleness, especially from old age.























Drawing words with leaves,
Abandoned by trees and orphans
An alphabet of decrepitude and neglect
Flotsam on top of my tea.

Rush

RUSH

-verb (used without object)
1. to move, act, or progress with speed, impetuosity, or violence.
2. to dash, especially to dash forward for an attack or onslaught.
3. to appear, go, pass, etc., rapidly or suddenly.
4. Football . to carry the ball on a running play or plays.
-verb (used with object)
5. to perform, accomplish, or finish with speed, impetuosity, or violence.
6. to carry or convey with haste.
7. to cause to move, act, or progress quickly; hurry.
8. to send, push, force, impel, etc., with unusual speed or haste.
9. to attack suddenly and violently; charge.
10.to overcome or capture (a person, place, etc.).
11.Informal . to heap attentions on; court intensively; woo.
12.to entertain (a prospective fraternity or sorority member) before making bids for membership.
13.Football (American).
a. to carry (the ball) forward across the line of scrimmage.
b. to carry the ball (a distance) forward from the line of scrimmage.
c. (of a defensive team member) to attempt to force a way quickly into the backfield in pursuit of (the back in possession of the ball).
-noun
14.the act of rushing; a rapid, impetuous, or violent onward movement.
15.a hostile attack.
16.an eager rushing of numbers of persons to some region that is being occupied or exploited, especially because of a new mine.
17.a sudden appearance or access.
18.hurried activity; busy haste.
19.a hurried state, as from pressure of affairs.
20.press of work, business, traffic, etc., requiring extraordinary effort or haste.
21.Football (American).
a. an attempt to carry or instance of carrying the ball across the line of scrimmage.
b. an act or instance of rushing the offensive back in possession of the ball.
22.a scrimmage held as a form of sport between classes or bodies of students in colleges.
23.rushes. Movies . a series of hastily printed shots from the previous day's shooting, selected by the director to be viewed for possible inclusion in the final version of the film.
24.Informal . a series of lavish attentions paid a woman by a suitor.
25.the rushing by a fraternity or sorority.
26.Also called flash. Slang . the initial, intensely pleasurable or exhilarated feeling experienced upon taking a narcotic or stimulant drug.
-adj.
27.requiring or done in haste.
28.characterized by excessive business, a press of work or traffic, etc.

-noun
1. any grasslike plant of the genus Juncus, having pithy or hollow stems, found in wet or marshy places.
2. any plant of the rush family.
3. any of various similar plants.
4. a stem of such a plant, used for making chair bottoms, mats, baskets, etc.
5. something of little or no value; trifle.























We rush through rushes
Screaming like demons
A childhood perk.

Fug

FUG

-noun
Stale, humid, and stuffy atmosphere, as in a crowded, poorly ventilated room.



Winter puddles,
Reminiscent of future snow
And wet coats fug.

Terrene

TERRENE
[teh-REEN, TER-een]

-adj.
Relating to the earth; earthly; worldly; mundane.

























Terrene remains
Saints and sinners
Mixed up by time
And the folly of man.

Circinate

CIRCINATE

-adj.
1. made round; ring-shaped.
2. Botany, Mycology . rolled up on the axis at the apex, as a leaf or fruiting body.























Cappelletti;
Making pasta
As circinate art.

Pale

PALE

-adj.
1. lacking intensity of colour; colourless or whitish.
2. of a low degree of chroma, saturation, or purity; approaching white or grey.
3. not bright or brilliant; dim.
4. faint or feeble; lacking vigour.
-verb (used without object), verb (used with object)
5. to make or become pale

-noun
1. a stake or picket, as of a fence.
2. an enclosing or confining barrier; enclosure.
3. an enclosed area.
4. limits; bounds.
5. a district or region within designated bounds.
6. ( initial capital letter ) Also called English Pale, Irish Pale. a district in eastern Ireland included in the Angevin Empire of King Henry II and his successors.
7. an ordinary in the form of a broad vertical stripe at the centre of an escutcheon.
8. Shipbuilding . a shore used inside to support the deck beams of a hull under construction.
-verb (used with object)
9. to enclose with pales; fence.
10.to encircle or encompass.



Here
Each shadow
Watch over its pale

Redound

REDOUND

-verb (used without object)
1. to have a good or bad effect or result, as to the advantage or disadvantage of a person or thing.
2. to result or accrue, as to a person.
3. to come back or reflect upon a person as to honour or disgrace (usually followed by "on" or "upon").























An angel
Redounds upon their fall
Glowing in the rain

Frondescence

FRONDESCENCE
[fron-DES-uhns]

-noun
1. Leafage; foliage.
2. The process or period of putting forth leaves, as a tree, plant, or the like.























Flowers and frondescences
Meet with fruits in a warm cup.
This sounds like the start of a joke.

Abide

ABIDE

-verb (used without object)
1. to remain; continue; stay.
2. to have one's abode; dwell; reside.
3. to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship, etc.; last.
-verb (used with object)
4. to put up with; tolerate; stand.
5. to endure, sustain, or withstand without yielding or submitting.
6. to wait for; await.
7. to accept without opposition or question.
8. to pay the price or penalty of; suffer for.























I shall abide
In our abode
But only abide this much
That love excuses

Staunch

STAUNCH
[stawnch, stahnch]

—verb
1. to stem the flow of (a liquid, especially blood) or (of a liquid) to stop flowing
2. to prevent the flow of a liquid, especially blood, from (a hole, wound, etc)
3. an archaic word for assuage
—noun
4. a primitive form of lock in which boats are carried over shallow parts of a river in a rush of water released by the lock
ALSo: stanch

























A broken cup
Liquid quickly staunched
Our lives so frail

Axil

AXIL
[ak-sil]

-noun
the angle between the upper surface of a branch or leafstalk and the stem from which it grows



Dreamers and botanists
Can lose themselves
In the study of axils
And their potential implications.

Verbena

VERBENA
[ver-bee-nuh]

-noun
1. any of various plants of the genus Verbena, especially any of several hybrid species cultivated for their showy flower clusters.
2. any of various other plants, as the lemon verbena or sand verbena.

























Fragile and fragrant
Letters of verbena
Promising warmth and tea.

Nictitate

NICTITATE
[nik-ti-teyt]

-verb (used without object)
to blink or wink
Also - nictate



She's got this
Special something
A wicked way
Of nictitating
That infuriates me.

Bract

BRACT

-noun
a specialized leaf, usually smaller than the foliage leaves, with a single flower or inflorescence growing in its axil

























"Take me in your bracts"
Cries rain to the flower
"Never ever let me go"

Crosier

CROSIER
[kroh-zher]

-noun
1. a ceremonial staff carried by a bishop or an abbot, hooked at one end like a shepherd's crook.
2. Botany . the circinate young frond of a fern.




Hunting for a metaphoric crosier
I become mesmerized by convoluted words instead.


Crozier shadow appears courtesy of bpende at Flickr.

Awn

AWN
[awn]

-noun Botany .
1. a bristle-like appendage of a plant, especially on the glumes of grasses.
2. such appendages collectively, as those forming the beard of wheat, barley, etc.
3. any similar bristle.




He was prickly
Too much awn on his cheeks
But then when I complained
He reminded me of how much
We had relished our roll
In the awns last spring.

Obloquy

OBLOQUY

-noun
1. censure, blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing, especially by numerous persons or by the general public.
2. discredit, disgrace, or bad repute resulting from public blame, abuse, or denunciation.























I won't stone you
Regardless of the ambient obloquy
Despite the fact that weapons abound
For who am I to judge?

Palladium

PALLADIUM
[puh-ley-dee-uhm]

-noun
1. Also, Pal·la·di·on  [puh-ley-dee-on] a statue of Athena, especially one on the citadel of Troy on which the safety of the city was supposed to depend.
2. ( usually lowercase ) anything believed to provide protection or safety; safeguard.

-noun
1.a ductile malleable silvery-white element of the platinum metal group occurring principally in nickel-bearing ores: used as a hydrogenation catalyst and, alloyed with gold, in jewellery.

























Watch tower
Awkward palladium
Where are those stairs leading to?

Pepper

PEPPER

-noun
1. a pungent condiment obtained from various plants of the genus Piper, especially from the dried berries, used whole or ground, of the tropical climbing shrub P. nigrum.
2. any plant of the genus Piper.
3. any of several plants of the genus Capsicum, especially C. annuum, cultivated in many varieties, or C. frutescens.
4. the usually green or red fruit of any of these plants, ranging from mild to very pungent in flavor.
5. the pungent seeds of several varieties of C. annuum or C. frutescens, used ground or whole as a condiment.
-verb (used with object)
6. to season with or as if with pepper.
7. to sprinkle or cover, as if with pepper; dot.
8. to sprinkle like pepper.
9.to hit with rapidly repeated short jabs.
10.to pelt with or as if with shot or missiles.
11.to discharge (shot or missiles) at something.

























Unlikely companions
Vanilla and green pepper
Blended in alliance
To confound your senses.

Eidolon

EIDOLON
[ahy-doh-luhn]

-noun
1. a phantom; apparition.
2. an ideal.




Velvet eidolon
Scaring visitors
With loud purrs

Aghast

AGHAST
[uh-gast, uh-gahst]

-adj.
struck with overwhelming shock or amazement; filled with sudden fright or horror

























Aghast,
We cried on the corpse
Before looking for murderers.
They smiled
Teeth full of feathers.

Quip

QUIP
[kwip]

-noun
1. a clever or witty remark or comment.
2. a sharp, sarcastic remark; a cutting jest.
3. a quibble.
4. an odd or fantastic action or thing.
verb (used without object)
5. to utter quips.

























Here even the walls smile,
Enjoy a quip or two.
Pedestrians ignore them.

Teratology

TERATOLOGY
[ter-uh-tol-uh-jee]

-noun Biology.
the science or study of monstrosities or abnormal formations in organisms.

























Teratology turned art
Or was it art that started it?
Discovered the attraction,
The pull of monsters?

Faldage

FALDAGE

-noun
A privilege of setting up, and moving about, folds for sheep, in any fields within manors, in order to manure them; often reserved to himself by the lord of the manor.























Passing through vineyards
By antic right of faldage
Flocks of sheep and dogs

Epigone

EPIGONE
[ep-i-gohn]

-noun
an undistinguished imitator, follower, or successor of an important writer, painter, etc.



And who am I
But an epigone?


Background picture obtained with PhotoFunia

Moil

MOIL
[moil]

-verb (used without object)
1. to work hard; drudge.
2. to whirl or churn ceaselessly; twist; eddy.
-verb (used with object)
3. Archaic. to wet or smear.
-noun
4. hard work or drudgery.
5. confusion, turmoil, or trouble.
6. Glassmaking. a superfluous piece of glass formed during blowing and removed in the finishing operation.
7. Mining. a short hand tool with a polygonal point, used for breaking or prying out rock.

























Dough making
Requires a good dose of moiling
As well as time.

Lich

LICH
[lich]

-noun British Obsolete.
1. the body; the trunk.
2. a dead body; corpse.



Poor lich,
Such stress!
But, wait:
He's purring still.

Integument

INTEGUMENT
[in-teg-yuh-muhnt]

-noun
1. a natural covering, as a skin, shell, or rind.
2. any covering, coating, enclosure, etc.

























A new colour
Rust brought in
On the wings of pollution
Red integument

Lyard

LYARD
[LAHY-erd]

-adj.
Streaked or spotted with gray or white.

























Lyard windshield
No frost flowers for me.

Caduke

CADUKE


-adj.
Perishable; frail; transitory.



A moment of confusion
Is it that late already?
Caduke time.

Murmur

MURMUR
[mur-mer]

-noun
1. a low, continuous sound, as of a brook, the wind, or trees, or of low, indistinct voices.
2. a mumbled or private expression of discontent.
3. Also called heart murmur. Medicine/Medical.
a. an abnormal sound heard on listening to the heart, usually through a stethoscope, produced by the blood passing through deformed cardiac valves.
b. in some persons a similar sound heard when blood passes through normal valves.
4. Phonetics. a voice quality in which vibration of the vocal cords is accompanied by the escape of a great deal of air, as in the (h) of ahead; breathy voice.
-verb (used without object)
5. to make a low or indistinct sound, especially continuously.
6. to speak in a low tone or indistinctly.
7. to complain in a low tone or in private.
-verb (used with object)
8. to sound by murmurs.
9. to utter in a low tone




A murmur
So soft
So tender
To the ear
A murmur
Can murder
A heart
If displaced
Or malicious

Forficate

FORFICATE
[FOR-fi-kit, kayt]

-adj.
Deeply forked.

























Beyond forficate
Into a maze
A fractured world
For fractured times

Groat

GROAT
[groht]

-noun
a silver coin of England, equal to four pennies, issued from 1279 to 1662.

-Plural noun - groats
1. the hulled and crushed grain of oats, wheat, or certain other cereals
2. the parts of oat kernels, buckwheat, or barley used as food























Playing around with groats
You could make a few groats
If it wasn't for time delay
And caducity.

Purr

PURR
[pur]

-verb (used without object)
1. to utter a low, continuous, murmuring sound expressive of contentment or pleasure, as a cat does.
2. (of things) to make a sound suggestive of the purring of a cat.
-verb (used with object)
3. to express by or as if by purring.
-noun
4. the low, vibrating sound made by a cat by the contracting of the laryngeal muscles and the diaphragm as it breathes.
5. a sound resembling this.
6. the act of purring.























She purrs so
Loud and clear
A little hand trap
Luring you closer
Bound to her will

Fever

FEVER
[fee-ver]

-noun
1. an abnormal condition of the body, characterized by undue rise in temperature, quickening of the pulse, and disturbance of various body functions.
2. an abnormally high body temperature.
3. the number of degrees of such a temperature above the normal.
4. any of a group of diseases in which high temperature is a prominent symptom.
5. intense nervous excitement.
-verb (used with object)
6. to affect with or as with fever



Treading the file line
Between imagination and hypochondria
Fever could easily transform me
In a dead piece of wood.

Occult

OCCULT
[uh-kuhlt, ok-uhlt]

-adj.
1. of or pertaining to magic, astrology, or any system claiming use or knowledge of secret or supernatural powers or agencies.
2. beyond the range of ordinary knowledge or understanding; mysterious.
3. secret; disclosed or communicated only to the initiated.
4. hidden from view.
5. (in early science)
a. not apparent on mere inspection but discoverable by experimentation.
b. of a nature not understood, as physical qualities.
c. dealing with such qualities; experimental: occult science.
6. Medicine/Medical. present in amounts too small to be visible
-noun
7. the supernatural or supernatural agencies and affairs considered as a whole (usually preceded by "the").
8. occult studies or sciences (usually preceded by "the").
-verb (used with object)
9. to block or shut off (an object) from view; hide.
10.Astronomy. to hide (a celestial body) by occultation.
-verb (used without object)
11.to become hidden or shut off from view.




Anamorphic frescoes
Occulted by a point of view
Isn’t everything else as well?

Zoetrope

ZOETROPE
[zoh-ee-trohp]
-noun
a device for giving an illusion of motion, consisting of a slitted drum that, when whirled, shows a succession of images placed opposite the slits within the drum as one moving image.

























Shadows and light
Life's binary code
Zoetrope progress

Bathos

BATHOS
[bey-thos, -thaws, -thohs]

-noun
1. a ludicrous descent from the exalted or lofty to the commonplace; anticlimax.
2. insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness.
3. triteness or triviality in style.



Too often is funeral art
Rife with bathos.
Angels still delight.

Naught

NAUGHT
[nawt]

-noun
1. nothing.
2. a cipher (0); zero.
-adj.
3. lost; ruined.
4. Archaic. worthless; useless.
5. Obsolete. morally bad; wicked.
-adv.
6. Obsolete. not.
ALSO: nought



Her mouth a perfect naught
Naught, devoured by time.

Wither

WITHER
[with-er]

-verb (used without object)
1. to shrivel; fade; decay.
2. to lose the freshness of youth, as from age (often followed by “away”).



October jewels
Offered by withered hands
Late raspberries