Barley

BARLEY

–noun
1. a widely distributed cereal plant belonging to the genus Hordeum, of the grass family, having awned flowers that grow in tightly bunched spikes, with three small additional spikes at each node.
2. the grain of this plant, used as food and in making beer, ale, and whiskey.

–noun
Scot. and North England . a truce or quarter, especially in children's games; parley.























Let's take a barley
From life's impetus.
Toasted barley tea.

Lunate

LUNATE

–adj.
1. crescent-shaped.
.–noun
2. Anatomy . the second bone from the thumb side of the proximal row of bones of the carpus.
3. a crescent-shaped, microlithic artifact mounted in a haft to form a composite tool, mostly Mesolithic in origin.























You came at me with a set of lunate blades
And sharp words to match.
What won’t you do for food!

Ponder

PONDER

–verb (used without object)
1. to consider something deeply and thoroughly; meditate (often followed by "over" or "upon").
–verb (used with object)
2. to weigh carefully in the mind; consider thoughtfully























Sight lost in water
Reality faded to black
She ponders the meaning of life
The unbearable crush
And is grateful for wings

Snood

SNOOD

–noun
1. the distinctive headband formerly worn by young unmarried women in Scotland and northern England.
2. a headband for the hair.
3. a netlike hat or part of a hat or fabric that holds or covers the back of a woman's hair.
4. the pendulous skin over the beak of a turkey.
–verb (used with object)
5. to bind or confine (the hair) with a snood.




A snood for a noose
Skulls masquerading as flowers.
I relish the double-takes

Exertion

EXERTION

–noun
1. vigorous action or effort.
2. an effort.
3. exercise, as of power or faculties.
4. an instance of this.























Carrying the papal stem
Is quite an exertion
Why, the poor fellow is wasted
To the bones!

Carom

CAROM

–noun
1. Billiards, Pool . a shot in which the cue ball hits two balls in succession.
2. any strike and rebound, as a ball striking a wall and glancing off.
–verb (used without object)
3. to make a carom.
4. to strike and rebound.























Hail music
Tapping away
Caroming off stones
Chanting of summer storms
Impromptu granite
Slush in my cocktail
Unexpected
Fluke weather
Cool heat.

Context

CONTEXT

–noun
1. the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect.
2. the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
3. Mycology . the fleshy fibrous body of the pileus in mushrooms.























It’s all about context,
You said
Before drifting away.
I doubt
That you ever loved me

Costard

COSTARD

–noun
1. a large English variety of apple.
2. Archaic . the head.























Three red costards
Small and juicy
Three red costards
Small and pithy
I can’t wait for autumn

Adduce

ADDUCE

–verb (used with object)
to bring forward in argument or as evidence; cite as pertinent or conclusive



“Meow” was adduced
As definite statement
For fanfare waking-up time
Or food offering expectancy
Short and to the point.

Avocation

AVOCATION

-noun
1. One's regular job or occupation.
2. An activity taken up besides the regular work; a hobby.



Free writing, prose long and short
Or poetry of some sort.
Demanding avocation:
From real world, vacation.

Douse

DOUSE

–verb (used with object)
1. to plunge into water or the like; drench.
2. to splash or throw water or other liquid on.
3. to extinguish.
–verb (used without object)
6. to plunge or be plunged into a liquid.

British Dialect
—verb
1. nautical. to lower (sail) quickly
2. archaic. to strike or beat
—noun
3. archaic. a blow

























Dripping gloom
Doused in darkness
They glitter faintly still
Dreams.

Ravel

RAVEL

-verb trans. intr.
1. To fray or to become dis-joined; to untangle.
2. To entangle or to become tangled.



A bolero
Meanings frayed and ravelling
Meeting opposites in a kiss
Breeding confusion
Succulent quid pro quo

Series

SERIES

–noun
1. a group or a number of related or similar things, events, etc., arranged or occurring in temporal, spatial, or other order or succession; sequence.
2. a number of games, contests, or sporting events, with the same participants, considered as a unit.
3. a set, as of coins or stamps.
4. a set of successive volumes or issues of a periodical published in like form with similarity of subject or purpose.
5. Radio and Television .
a. a daily or weekly program with the same cast and format and a continuing story, as a soap opera, situation comedy, or drama.
b. a number of related programs having the same theme, cast, or format.
6. Mathematics .
a. a sequence of terms combined by addition
b. infinite series.
7. Rhetoric . a succession of coordinate sentence elements.
8. Geology . a division of stratified rocks that is of next higher rank to a stage and next lower rank to a system, comprising deposits formed during part of a geological epoch.
9. Electricity . an end-to-end arrangement of the components, as resistors, in a circuit so that the same current flows through each component.
10.Chemistry . a group of related chemical elements arranged in order of increasing atomic number
–adj.
11.Electricity . consisting of or having component parts connected in series























Series of ideas:
Pillars to a story,
Or massive grave,
Toxic junk yard,
A start for the future,
Wings for dreams.

Abut

ABUT

–verb (used without object)
1. to be adjacent; touch or join at the edge or border (often followed by "on", "upon", or "against")
–verb (used with object)
2. to be adjacent to; border on; end at.
3. to support by an abutment.




Regardless of impressions
The sky never quite abuts the sea
They are all and the same.

Fool

FOOL

–noun
1. a silly or stupid person; a person who lacks judgment or sense.
2. a professional jester, formerly kept by a person of royal or noble rank for amusement.
3. a person who has been tricked or deceived into appearing or acting silly or stupid.
4. an ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm (usually preceded by a present participle).
5. a weak-minded or idiotic person.
–verb (used without object)
7. to act like a fool; joke; play.
8. to jest; pretend; make believe

–noun
British Cookery .
1. a dish made of fruit, scalded or stewed, crushed and mixed with cream or the like























A fool of a fruit
Lured into this trap.
A fool
To us.

Micawber

MICAWBER

-noun
An eternal optimist.























Always the micawber,
She feels entitled to cuddles
And endless supplies of food.
The fool.

Barmecidal

BARMECIDAL

-adj.
Giving only an illusion of something; unreal.



Barmecidal gardens
A lost topiary art

Etiolate

ETIOLATE

-verb trans.
1. To make pale by preventing exposure to sunlight.
2. To make weak by stunting the growth of.
-verb intr.
3. To become pale, weak, or stunted.



Etiolated by age
Angels still dance about
But their pin has lost its head.

Devoid

DEVOID

–adj.
1. not possessing, untouched by, void, or destitute (usually followed by "of").
–verb (used with object)
2. to deplete or strip of some quality or substance



Time touched sphinx
Devoid of head piece
Lost to memory

Onus

ONUS

-noun
1. a difficult or disagreeable obligation, task, burden, etc.
2. burden of proof.
3. blame or responsibility.























Serious people will place
The onus of a pink sky on photons,
Summer delight or ice cream.

Bole

BOLE

–noun
Botany .
1. the stem or trunk of a tree.

–noun
1. any of a variety of soft, unctuous clays of various colours, used as pigments.
2. a medium red-brown colour made from such clay.


















Lone metal bole
Unable to sprout leaves
Bole coloured world

Addle

ADDLE

–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
1. to make or become confused.
2. to make or become rotten, as eggs.
–adj.
3. mentally confused; muddled.
4. rotten























Contrary to the obvious
Addled eggs are not scrambled.
Or mad.

Hinky

HINKY

-adj.
nervous or suspicious; acting suspiciously




Hinky stray
Stays well away
But still within my camera's reach.

Thresh

THRESH

— verb
(often followed by “about”)
1. to beat or rub stalks of ripe corn or a similar crop either with a hand implement or a machine to separate the grain from the husks and straw
2. (trans.) to beat or strike
3. to toss and turn; thrash
— noun
4. the act of threshing























Life
Threshing youth of its awkward husk
Supporting straws and flaws
Sometimes crushing grains
In the process.

Bibliocast

BIBLIOCAST

–noun
a person who mutilates or destroys books.
























Portrait of the artist as a bibliocast:
Her sculpture far better than the destroyed tome.


Sculpture by Françoise Chamagne

Primordial

PRIMORDIAL

–adj.
1. constituting a beginning; giving origin to something derived or developed; original; elementary,
2. Embryology . first formed.
3. pertaining to or existing at or from the very beginning



Primordial fears
Keep us anchored to life
And rational acts
But our dreams stray.

Slant

SLANT

–verb (used without object)
1. to veer or angle away from a given level or line, especially from a horizontal; slope.
2. to have or be influenced by a subjective point of view, bias, personal feeling or inclination, etc. (usually followed by "towards").
–verb (used with object)
3. to cause to slope.
4. to distort (information) by rendering it unfaithfully or incompletely, especially in order to reflect a particular viewpoint.
5. to write, edit, or publish for the interest or amusement of a specific group of readers.
–noun
6. slanting or oblique direction; slope.
7. a slanting line, surface, etc.
8. virgule.
9. a mental leaning, bias, or distortion.
10.viewpoint; opinion; attitude.
11.Informal . a glance or look.
12.Also called angle. Journalism . the particular mood or vein in which something is written, edited, or published.
13.Football .
a. an offensive play in which the ball-carrier runs toward the line of scrimmage at an angle.
b. Also called slant-in. a pass pattern in which a receiver cuts diagonally across the middle of the field.
–adj.
14. sloping; oblique



Slanted sun light
Discovering veins and fractures
Turning frail colours

Floor

FLOOR

–noun
1. that part of a room, hallway, or the like, that forms its lower enclosing surface and upon which one walks.
2. a continuous, supporting surface extending horizontally throughout a building, having a number of rooms, apartments, or the like, and constituting one level or stage in the structure; story.
3. a level, supporting surface in any structure
4. one of two or more layers of material composing a floor.
5. a platform or prepared level area for a particular use.
6. the bottom of any more or less hollow place.
7. a more or less flat extent of surface.
8. the part of a legislative chamber, meeting room, etc., where the members sit, and from which they speak.
9. the right of one member to speak from such a place in preference to other members.
10. the area of a floor, as in a factory or retail store, where items are actually made or sold, as opposed to offices, supply areas, etc.
11. the main part of a stock or commodity exchange or the like, as distinguished from the galleries, platform, etc.
12. the bottom, base, or minimum charged, demanded, or paid.
13. Mining . an underlying stratum, as of ore, usually flat.
14. Nautical .
a. the bottom of a hull.
b. any of a number of deep, transverse framing members at the bottom of a steel or iron hull, generally interrupted by and joined to any vertical keel or keelsons.
c. the lowermost member of a frame in a wooden vessel.
–verb (used with object)
15. to cover or furnish with a floor.
16. to bring down to the floor or ground; knock down: He floored his opponent with one blow.
17. to overwhelm; defeat.



On the ocean floor
Skate the languid sirens
Polishing up the algae
With a swipe of their tail

Maté

MATÉ

–noun
1. a tea-like South American beverage made from the dried leaves of an evergreen tree.
2. a South American tree, Ilex paraguariensis, that is the source of this beverage.
3. the dried leaves of this tree.



An acquired taste,
Maté is full of vitamines
And minerals:
It's good for you
And tastes like it too.

Fatigue

FATIGUE

–noun
1. weariness from bodily or mental exertion.
2. a cause of weariness; slow ordeal; exertion.
3. Physiology . temporary diminution of the irritability or functioning of organs, tissues, or cells after excessive exertion or stimulation.
4. Civil Engineering . the weakening or breakdown of material subjected to stress, especially a repeated series of stresses.
5. Also called fatigue duty. Military .
a. labour of a generally non-military kind done by soldiers, such as cleaning up an area, digging drainage ditches, or raking leaves.
b. the state of being engaged in such labour.
6. fatigues, Military . fatigue clothes.
–adj.
7. of or pertaining to fatigues or any clothing made to resemble them.
–verb (used with object)
8. to weary with bodily or mental exertion; exhaust the strength of.
9. Civil Engineering . to subject (a material) to fatigue.
–verb (used without object)
10.to become fatigued.
11.Civil Engineering . (of a material) to undergo fatigue.



Let the sick, the needy,
Find harbour for their fatigue
Tender morsels and cuddles
For the weary.

Lancinate

LANCINATE

-verb trans.
To pierce or tear.























Some bees
Can lancinate your heart
Just as well as your skin