Eldritch ... Wispy

Today’s word is “eldritch” ... eerie; weird; spooky. (Dictionary.com)

Wispy

Yes, an eldritch night,

Tiny spooks and goblins roam.

Do not be afraid.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Gloaming ... Flicker

Today’s word is “gloaming” ... twilight. (Dictionary.com)

Flicker

Pumpkin eyes gleam.

Then the gloaming sinks to night,

Creatures roam at will.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Extramundane ... Overwhelmed

Today’s word is “extra mundane” ... beyond our world or the material universe. (Dictionary.com)

Overwhelmed

With knowledge his head became

     So large, it rose into the sky,

He’d been asking pointed questions,

     The most annoying, “why?”

He floated past the moon,

     Sighting in on the planet Mars,

From there he planned his trip,

     To find the furthest star.

It was dazzling and outrageous,

     How the spirals came and went,

At times it was even dangerous,

     As time itself was bent.

But all he found was more,

     Unending galactic wonders,

This extramundane journey,

    He pondered, might have been a blunder.

Forever he did wander,

     Through countless worlds unknown,

Starry-eyed and speechless,

     Amazed and all alone.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Prescient ... Questions

Today’s word is “prescient” ... having knowledge of things or events before they exist or happen; having foresight. (Dictionary.com)

Questions

Sometimes results surprise,

As we add up facts,

Plot on our charts and graphs,

Results of hoped for acts.

Though we think we’re prescient,

The future’s not yet written,

We lean toward our biases,

By which we’re surely smitten.

Only the hands of time,

Will give us solid history,

‘Til then we all reside,

In the eye of mystery.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Mal du pays .... Return

Today’s word is “mal du pays” ... homesickness. (Dictionary.com)

Return

Can you feel mal du pays,

For a place you’ve never seen,

A place in imagination,

Where you’ve never been?

A promise from the past,

Made by the holy one,

For those who will believe,

This one and only son.

We give up what is dust,

For a place where evil’s barred,

Where light and love reign free,

And no one is on guard.

We can not see or hear,

From this weighted space,

What light and goodness make,

When informed by grace.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Autoschediasm ... Convince

Today’s word is “autoschediasm” ... something that is improvised or extemporized. (Dictionary.com)

Convince

It seems this is an exercise,

     In autoschediasm,

Everybody’s winging it,

     To enlarge the chasm.

Just a few more days,

     ‘Til folks will have their say,

Until then we’ll watch the trends,

      Fold our hands and pray.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Wherewithal ... Episodic

Today’s word is “wherewithal” ... that with which to do something; means or supplies for the purpose or need, especially money. (Dictionary.com

Episodic

The t.v. show cowboy hid

     behind a rock,

He was plotting his revenge.

     Society had snubbed him.

He did not have the wherewithal

     to live in his desired luxury.

Now he would rob the stagecoach ...

     All those fancy people would pay.

As shot his gun in the air,

     His horse tripped in a gopher hole

And they fell in a cloud of dust.

     The stage rolled past.

The robber lay where he fell

     Considering his future,

           From a new angle.

(No horses were harmed in the

     Making if this fantasy.)

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Indelible ... Forever

Today’s word is “indelible” ... impossible to eliminate, forget, or change. (Dictionary.com)

Forever

Every single word

An indelible record.

Revealing the heart.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Supercilious ... Evolve

Today’s word is “supercilious” ... haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression. (Dictionary.com)

Evolve

From such a height

     All those below look small.

Their lives look small

     And unimportant.

The supercilious ones claim

     That their wisdom is greater

           Than any other.

Not for them sagas handed down

     By frocked sages and doomed disciples.

They’ve given birth to their own philosophies.

     Comfortable beliefs that require nothing;

          That match their own desires completely.

Who would not be happy there?

Who would not want to create a world?

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Psephology ... Set

Today’s word is “psephology” ... the study of elections.(Dictionary.com)

Set

He sat with charts and maps,

     numbers and colors and lines.

          Pointing this way. And that.

Building a case. Adding and subtracting

     Points. Adding and subtracting

          Opinions.

He rubbed his beard in puzzlement.

     Took a sip of coffee. Wondering.

Trying to use all the tools of his psephology

     To come to a conclusion. That he could 

          Live with.

With a sigh he made a mark. There. 

     Statistics turned into reality.

          Now if the people believe ...

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Nimbus ...

Today’s word is “nimbus” ... cloud, aura, atmosphere, etc., surrounding a person or thing. (Dictionary.com)

Release

Uncertainty hangs like a nimbus,

    follows us like Pigpen’s dust.

Confronted with this thing we 

    cannot change, we cope.

We ignore it. Work and entertainment.

     Family and exercise. Yet it lingers.

Some of us try to fight it. To exhaustion.

     To the end of our selves.

Some acknowledge and move on. 

     Hoping with all their might that it will

          just go away.

But, as strange as it seems, some believe 

     there is a way to move beyond, a person 

           who can save. Who has always saved.

That beyond myth and story, there is truth.

     And we are in his embrace.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Desideratum ...

Today’s word is “desideratum” ... something wanted or needed. (Dictionary.com)

New

It’s desideratum,

Clear sight and consequences

Turn the world around.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Clement ... Repent

Today’s word is “clement” ...  mild or merciful in disposition or character; lenient; compassionate.  (Dictionary.com)

Repent

Clemency, forgiveness,

Unfamiliar actions,

We are so much better,

At dividing into factions.

Every day we see,

Examples that deflate,

That demoralize with violence,

Until there’s no debate.

We’re broken and we’re braking

It has been ever so,

Only God can heal us,

Remake us as we go.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Mardy ...

Today’s word is “mardy” ...  grumpy or moody; sulky. (Dictionary.com)

Everybody’s getting mardy,

Tired and forlorn,

Worn out by the frenzy,

From morn to morn to morn.

How long can anger rule us?

How long can we stand apart,

When freedom is our birthright,

Something deep within our hearts?

Our bonds are surely stronger,

Than these issues that divide,

Beg sense come back to save us,

To stem the flooding tide.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 202

Ambivert ... Enigma

Today’s word is “ambivert” ... one whose personality type is intermediate between extrovert and introvert. (Dictionary.com)

Enigma 

Glowing in the night sky,

     the moon is so expressive,

Source of poets rhymes,

     she mystifies, impressive.

She is an ambivert,

     behind the clouds she’s shy,

But shining in clear atmosphere,

      she winks at stars nearby.

She shifts her shape and size,

     from a sliver to a whole

That fills horizon’s measure,

     from knoll to endless knoll.

She pulls the mighty oceans,

     we try to see but fail,

To see how she completes her rounds,

     tide lines her only trail.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Diction ... Lost

Today’s word is “diction” ... style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words. (Dictionary.com)

Lost

Do you remember cursive?

They don’t teach it anymore,

It’s gone the way if fairytales,

And other kinds of lore.

Diction was once proper,

There was right and wrong,

We knew who was moral,

Who was good and strong.

Things are murky now,

We’ve strayed into a strange place,

It seems there’s no redemption,

And certainly no grace.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Totis viribus ... Stalk

Today’s word is “totis viribus” ... with all one's might. (Dictionary.com)

Stalk

All summer they grew,

Totis viribus, from seeds,

Now they’re bent to ground.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Doldrums ... Routine

Today’s word is “doldrums”  ... a state of inactivity or stagnation. (Dictionary.com)

Routine

Oh for the doldrums!

A day without news.

Just the sun shinning,

And time for a snooze.

Watching the squirrels,

Doing your work,

No one complaining,

No one who irks.

Becalmed in the storm,

Safe in the shore,

It sounds good to me,

Give me some more!

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Scunner ... Ungrateful

Today’s word is “scunner” ...  an irrational dislike; loathing. (Dictionary.com)

Ungrateful 

I feed him each day.

Yet he scunners me. He’s mean.

A cat with no soul.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020

Indigenous ...

Today’s word is “indigenous” ... relating to or being a people who are the original, earliest known inhabitants of a region, or are their descendants. (Dictionary.com)

Gather

Mountains high and dangerous,

Plains that run beyond the eye,

Jungles deep and mysterious,

Lands of ice and sky,

All hold human families,

Indigenous and proud,

With accidental colors,

Voices soft and loud.

No matter our origins,

Our likenesses define,

We love and live together,

Earth has no dividing lines.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2020