Wamble

WAMBLE

-verb (intr.)

1. to move unsteadily

2. to twist the body

3. to feel nausea

-noun

4. an unsteady movement

5. a sensation of nausea

The golem woke

And wambled

Trying to hold

Its pebbles

Cursing evenings

Of heavy drinking

Sub-Saharan rains

Steganography

STEGANOGRAPHY

-noun

1. the practice of concealing messages in such a way that only the sender and the recipient know that there is a message

2. computing the concealment of a message or data within an image, audio, or video file

Nature sending us
Messages in steganography
Only hearts can read
Who want to read

Basket

BASKET

-noun

1. a container made of interwoven strips of pliable materials, such as cane, straw, thin wood, or plastic, and often carried by means of a handle or handles

2. Also called: basketful . the amount a basket will hold

3. something resembling such a container in appearance or function, such as the structure suspended from a balloon

4. basketball

a. an open horizontal metal hoop fixed to the backboard, through which a player must throw the ball to score points

b. a point or points scored in this way

5. a group or collection of similar or related things

6. the list of items an internet shopper chooses to buy at one time from a website

Pasta nested

In a Parmesan basket

Too much cheese (yes)

Complicit

COMPLICIT

-adj.

involved with others in reprehensible or illegal activity

The twins protect each other
Complicit in napping and bullying
Of tender-hearted tourists
Foolish enough to order food
And not share it with them

Brace

BRACE

-noun

1. a hand tool for drilling holes, with a socket to hold the drill at one end and a cranked handle by which the tool can be turned. In full: hand brace

2. something that steadies, binds, or holds up another thing

3. a structural member, such as a beam or prop, used to stiffen a framework

4. a sliding loop, usually of leather, attached to the cords of a drum: used to change its tension

5. a pair; two, especially of game birds

6. either of a pair of characters, { }, used for connecting lines of printing or writing or as a third sign of aggregation in complex mathematical or logical expressions that already contain parentheses and square brackets

7. Also called: accolade .  a line or bracket connecting two or more staves of music

8. (often plural) an appliance of metal bands and wires that can be tightened to maintain steady pressure on the teeth for correcting uneven alignment

9. (medicine) any of various appliances for supporting the trunk, a limb, or teeth

10. another word for bracer (archery, fencing) . a leather guard worn to protect the arm

11. (in square-rigged sailing ships) a rope that controls the movement of a yard and thus the position of a sail

12. (if plural) (British) .  a pair of straps worn over the shoulders for holding up the trousers

-verb (mainly trans)

13. to provide, strengthen, or fit with a brace

14. to steady or prepare (oneself or something) as before an impact

15. (also intr.) to stimulate; freshen; invigorate

16. to control the horizontal movement of (the yards of a square-rigged sailing ship)

Reading Proust

Bracing ourselves

Against compulsive braces

Original picture courtesy of Simon Vestdijk (and creative commons) - his picture has been cropped and words added.

Stationery

STATIONERY

-noun

any writing materials, such as paper, envelopes, pens, ink, rulers, etc.

After all these years,

And much digital writing

I still favour basic stationery

And glorious paper

Stationary

STATIONARY

-adj.

1. not moving; standing still

2. not able to be moved

3. showing no change

4. tending to remain in one place

The shepherdess has gone

With the music player

They dally, time stationary

Wimple

WIMPLE

-noun

1. a piece of cloth draped around the head to frame the face, worn by women in the Middle Ages and still a part of the habit of some nuns

2. (Scottish) a curve or bend, as in a river

-verb

3. (rare) to ripple or cause to ripple or undulate

4. (trans.) archaic to cover with or put a wimple on

5. (archaic) (especially of a veil) to lie or cause to lie in folds or pleats

Marble wimples

Its veins disregarding words

And attempts at senses

Knows no restraints

Flavescent

FLAVESCENT

-adj.

turning yellow; yellowish

In the wind

Flavescent dancers

Cover me in gold

Religieuse

RELIGIEUSE

-noun

1. a nun

-noun

1. French pastry made of two choux pastry cases, one larger than the other, filled with flavoured custard (crème pâtissière), and bound/decorated with butter cream

The absurdity

Of roses and raspberries

And barely a wimple

For my religieuse

Renal

RENAL

-adj.

of, relating to, resembling, or situated near the kidney

If your cat drinks a lot

Please have it checked

For renal insufficiency

Trefoil

TREFOIL

-noun

1. any of numerous leguminous plants of the temperate genus Trifolium, having leaves divided into three leaflets and dense heads of small white, yellow, red, or purple flowers

2. any of various related plants having leaves divided into three leaflets, such as bird's-foot trefoil

3. a leaf having three leaflets

4. (architecture) . an ornament in the form of three arcs arranged in a circle

Looking for fortune in the trefoil

That odd even leafed specimen

No luck.

Amble

AMBLE

-verb (intr.)

1. to walk at a leisurely relaxed pace

2. (of a horse) to move slowly, lifting both legs on one side together

3. to ride a horse at an amble or leisurely pace

-noun

4. a leisurely motion in walking

5. a leisurely walk

6. the ambling gait of a horse

Room after room

Ambling about

To this painting

Or another as fancy

Takes them

Rogatory

ROGATORY

-adj.

(especially in legal contexts) seeking or authorized to seek information

Perhaps a scholar

Preparing a thesis

In rogatory terms

Perhaps a poet

Counting on his fingers

Drawing by Alfons Mucha

Daunting

DAUNTING

[ˈdɔːntɪŋ]

-adj.

causing fear or discouragement; intimidating

Question the wisdom

Of such daunting entrance

To a library

Intuition

INTUITION

-noun

1. knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception

2. instinctive knowledge or belief

3. a hunch or unjustified belief

4. (philosophy) . immediate knowledge of a proposition or object such as Kant's account of our knowledge of sensible objects

5. the supposed faculty or process by which we obtain any of these

Tired of stories

Though he comes in

On his horse

Her intuition whispers

These are lies

He tells to himself

Pilau

PILAU

[pɪˈlaʊ]

-noun

a dish originating from the East, consisting of rice flavoured with spices and cooked in stock, to which meat, poultry, or fish may be added. Variants: pilaf, pilaff [ˈpɪlæf], pilao [pɪˈlaʊ], pilaw [pɪˈlɔː] or pulao [pʊˈlaʊ]

Playing with pilau

Leaning to risotto

Fennel, horseradish

White chocolate

Salmon eggs

Ragged

RAGGED

-adj.

1. (of clothes) worn to rags; tattered

2. (of a person) dressed in shabby tattered clothes

3. having a neglected or unkempt appearance

4. having a loose, rough, or uneven surface or edge; jagged

5. uneven or irregular

Some undisclosed illness

Or lack of lust for life

Has left him with a ragged coat

Covering prominent bones

Glaucous

GLAUCOUS

-adj.

1. (botany) . covered with a bluish waxy or powdery bloom

2. bluish-green

I ran into the ocean lately and it misses you

It’s not saying, at least not much just

Rolling around pebbles under foot and

Moaning glaucous watery roars under its breath

Dejected lover – why did you leave?

Intaglio

INTAGLIO

[ɪnˈtɑːlɪˌəʊ]

-noun

1. a seal, gem, etc., ornamented with a sunken or incised design, as opposed to a design in relief.

2. the art or process of incised carving

3. a design, figure, or ornamentation carved, engraved, or etched into the surface of the material used

4. any of various printing techniques using an etched or engraved plate. The whole plate is smeared with ink, the surface wiped clean, and the ink in the recesses then transferred to the paper or other material

5. an incised die used to make a design in relief

Everything is about leading

Visitors away from truth

Faux intaglio is a painting

Marbles are simple casts

The Roman villa a Twenties’ folly

Cull

CULL

-verb (trans.)

1. to choose or gather the best or required examples

2. to take out (an animal, especially an inferior one) from a herd

3. to reduce the size of (a herd or flock) by killing a proportion of its members

4. to gather (flowers, fruit, etc.)

5. to cease to employ; get rid of

-noun

6. the act or product of culling

7. an inferior animal taken from a herd or group

In case of excess

Kill your darlings

Cull a few angels

Replace them by dragons

It’s all a matter of wings

And the dreams you should

Have had instead

Intuit

INTUIT

-verb

to know or discover by intuition

Let

Us

get lost

In alleys

Without intuit

No sense nor rhyme, no ups or downs

Exit but an illusion

A shimmering sea

At the end

Of a

Blind

View

Oodles

OODLES

-plural noun

(informal) great quantities

Today’s achievement

Oodles of years

And (hopefully)

More to come

Feijoa

FEIJOA

-noun

1. an evergreen myrtaceous shrub, Feijoa sellowiana, of South America

2. the fruit of this shrub

Wind has culled

And pushed

Feijoas in my path

Innocuous

INNOCUOUS

-adj.

having little or no adverse or harmful effect; harmless

You might think of her

As an innocuous creature

But her ears are a warning:

Don’t mess with the lady!

Captious

CAPTIOUS

-adj.

apt to make trivial criticisms; fault-finding; carping

To pay for university

Lea spent her weekends

Writing mean little articles

Loaded with captious comments

For the local newspaper

Trenchant

TRENCHANT

-adj.

1. keen or incisive

2. vigorous and effective

3. distinctly defined

4. (archaic or poetic) sharp

Ruined cave dwellings

A trenchant monarch

Pasted to derelict walls

Museum of despair

Bribe

BRIBE

-verb

1. to promise, offer, or give something, usually money, to (a person) to procure services or gain influence, especially illegally

-noun

2. a reward, such as money or favour, given or offered for this purpose

3. any persuasion or lure

4. a length of flawed or damaged cloth removed from the main piece

Bribes being taken

Or spoken of

Cloth felony innuendoes

Something evil is moving

And it might be the press

Or pure gossip

Spectacle

SPECTACLE

-noun

1. a public display or performance, especially a showy or ceremonial one

2. a thing or person seen, especially an unusual or ridiculous one

3. a strange or interesting object or phenomenon

4. (modifier) of or relating to spectacles

A hidden alley

Free spectacle for all

To ogle and distort

Nonplus

NONPLUS

-verb

1. (trans.) to put at a loss; confound

-noun

2. a state of utter perplexity prohibiting action or speech

The concave mirror effect nonplusses

Adding details out of scope from reality

Possibly a portal to another dimension

Date

DATE

-noun

1. a specified day of the month

2. the particular day or year of an event

3. (plural) the years of a person's birth and death or of the beginning and end of an event or period

4. an inscription on a coin, letter, etc., stating when it was made or written

5. (social)

a. an appointment for a particular time, especially with a person to whom one is sexually or romantically attached

b. the person with whom the appointment is made

6. the present moment

-verb

7. (trans.) to mark (a letter, coin, etc.) with the day, month, or year

8. (trans.) to assign a date of occurrence or creation to

9. (intr.; followed by “from” or “back to”) to have originated (at a specified time)

10. (trans.) to reveal the age of

11. to make or become old-fashioned

12. (informal), (mainly US and Canadian)

a. to be a boyfriend or girlfriend of (someone of the opposite sex)

b. to accompany (a member of the opposite sex) on a date

-noun

1. the fruit of the date palm, having sweet edible flesh and a single large woody seed

2. short for date palm

Here we have a date
With a date
Waiting for dessert


Date photo by Kevin Fai (licensed under creative commons)

Malapert

MALAPERT

-adj.

1. (archaic or literary) saucy or impudent

-noun

2. (archaic or literary) a saucy or impudent person

























For a not so humble feee,

The hunt is open

And I invade the inhabitants

Of this cute Kitty Café

With my camera

Making a pest of myself

Being called malapert

By the furry locals 

Bimonthly

BIMONTHLY

-adj., -adv.

1. every two months

2. (often avoided because of confusion with sense 1) twice a month; semimonthly.

-noun

3. a periodical published every two months

Sam would go out

And meet death bimonthly

For a game of chess

Played for money;

Cheated to lose so that

Death could afford something to eat

It looked way too thin

To be healthy

Bumfuzzle

BUMFUZZLE

-verb (trans.)

to confuse

A partially torn poster

Bumfuzzles the mind

For a short while

Then memory strikes back

To homophobic propaganda

I tear the rest of the poster

Obfuscate

OBFUSCATE

-verb (trans.)

1. to obscure or darken

2. to perplex or bewilder

Inattentive glances

And mixed propaganda

Obfuscating the message

This is no teething angel

But Aeolus firing a rocket

Assonance

ASSONANCE

-noun

1. the use of the same vowel sound with different consonants or the same consonant with different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables, as in a line of verse.

2. partial correspondence; rough similarity

Rosy dawn

Gelid morning

Atmospheric assonance

Dissonance

DISSONANCE

-noun

1. a discordant combination of sounds

2. lack of agreement or consistency

3. (music)

a. a sensation commonly associated with all intervals of the second and seventh, all diminished and augmented intervals, and all chords based on these intervals.

b. an interval or chord of this kind

Pinching the cords of dissonance

Asserting my rights to be different

Incongruent and magnificently unique

Just like my cells want me to be

Ginger

GINGER

-noun

1. any of several zingiberaceous plants of the genus Zingiber, especially Z. officinale of the East Indies, cultivated throughout the tropics for its spicy hot-tasting underground stem.

2. the underground stem of this plant, which is used fresh or powdered as a flavouring or crystallized as a sweetmeat

3. any of certain related plants

4. a reddish-brown or yellowish-brown colour

5. (informal) . liveliness; vigour

6. (informal) . a person with ginger hair

-verb

7. (trans.) to add the spice ginger to (a dish)

Fate is fiery

Ginger and scary

Regal

REGAL

-adj.

of, relating to, or befitting a king or queen; royal

-noun

(sometimes plural) a portable organ equipped only with small reed pipes, popular from the 15th century and recently revived for modern performance

Accepting homages

The only acceptable orange tyrant

A most regal creature

The poor fractured Heathcliffe

Harum-scarum

HARUM-SCARUM

-adj., -adv.

1. in a reckless way or of a reckless nature

-noun

2. a person who is impetuous or rash

Oh the votes

Have gone all harum-scarum

May we all rust in peace

Hmm

HMM

-exclamation

a sound made when considering or puzzling over something

My favourite Englishman

Says "hmm" a lot

And can make it sound cheeky

(Happy birthday, Neil)

Roost

ROOST

-noun

1. a place, perch, branch, etc., where birds, especially domestic fowl, rest or sleep

2. a temporary place to rest or stay

-verb (intr.)

3. to rest or sleep on a roost

4. to settle down or stay

At the end of the journey

I find my old roost

Filled with whatnots and books

Spindle

SPINDLE

-noun

1. a rod or stick that has a notch in the top, used to draw out natural fibres for spinning into thread, and a long narrow body around which the thread is wound when spun

2. one of the thin rods or pins bearing bobbins upon which spun thread is wound in a spinning wheel or machine

3. any of various parts in the form of a rod, especially a rotating rod that acts as an axle, mandrel, or arbour

4. a piece of wood that has been turned, such as a baluster or table leg

5. a small square metal shaft that passes through the lock of a door and to which the door knobs or handles are fixed

6. a measure of length of yarn equal to 18 hanks (15 120 yards) for cotton or 14 400 yards for linen

7. (biology) a spindle-shaped structure formed by microtubules during mitosis or meiosis which draws the duplicated chromosomes apart as the cell divides

8. a less common name for a hydrometer

9. a tall pole with a marker at the top, fixed to an underwater obstruction as an aid to navigation

10. a device consisting of a sharp upright spike on a pedestal on which bills, order forms, etc., are impaled

11. short for spindle tree (any of various shrubs or trees of the genus Euonymus, especially E. europaeus, of Europe and Western Asia, typically having red fruits and yielding a hard wood formerly used in making spindles – family: Celastraceae)

-verb

12. (trans.) to form into a spindle or equip with spindles

13. (intr.) rare (of a plant, stem, shoot, etc.) to grow rapidly and become elongated and thin

You wander about, crushing chestnuts husks underfoot,

Hermaphrodite spindle tangled in your hair

Death promised with every lock laughing in the autumn sun

Photon

PHOTON

-noun

a quantum of electromagnetic radiation, regarded as a particle with zero rest mass and charge, unit spin, and energy equal to the product of the frequency of the radiation and the Planck constant

A bitter scent of decay

Photons burning away

Stained evening

Confection

CONFECTION

-noun

1. the act or process of compounding or mixing

2. any sweet preparation of fruit, nuts, etc., such as a preserve or a sweet

3. old-fashioned an elaborate article of clothing, especially for women

4. informal anything regarded as over-elaborate or frivolous

5. a medicinal drug sweetened with sugar, honey, etc.

Buttery scones

Summery confection

Autumn comfort food

Grouse

GROUSE

-verb

1. (intr.) to grumble; complain

-noun

2. a persistent complaint

-noun

1. any gallinaceous bird of the family Tetraonidae, occurring mainly in the Northern hemisphere, having a stocky body and feathered legs and feet. They are popular game birds

-adj.

2. (Australian and New Zealand) (slang) excellent

Lacking attention

He grouses away

A forsaken star

Teetotal

TEETOTAL

-adj.

1. of, relating to, or practising abstinence from alcoholic drink

2. (dialect) . complete

Looking at the waves

Waving back

A teetotal experience

Koumpounophobia

KOUMPOUNOPHOBIA

-noun

irrational and persistent fear of buttons

Summer is fighting its last battle

Summoning koumpounophobia

In support of everything light

Detrition

DETRITION

-noun

the act of rubbing or wearing away by friction

Dawn

In an act of detrition

Night fritters away

Arbitration

ARBITRATION

-noun

1. (law) . the hearing and determination of a dispute, especially an industrial dispute, by an impartial referee selected or agreed upon by the parties concerned

2. (international law) . the procedure laid down for the settlement of international disputes

All games turned sour

They plead for arbitration

Promising to better behave