Cunctation … Rhythm

Today’s word is “cunctation” … lateness; delay. (Dictionary.com)

Rhythm

Without cunctation,

Trusted seasons wax and wane,

We are impatient.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Sacrosanct … Plus

Today’s word is “sacrosanct” … extremely sacred or inviolable. (Dictionary.com)

Plus

Peace and love and holiness,

Kindness and compassion,

There is no rule against these,

They don’t go out of fashion.

What else then is sacrosanct?

What else do we need,

To live with each other,

Without fear or greed?

If we read the scriptures,

Their wisdom will impart,

Everything that we need,

To keep our wayward hearts.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Belvedere … Pause

Today’s word is “Belvedere” … a building, or architectural feature of a building, designed and situated to look out upon a pleasing scene. (Dictionary.com)

Pause

Ah, to have a Belvedere,

A place to while away the days,

Watching all the beauty,

As nature swirls and plays.

Sipping on some cocoa,

Newspaper at your feet,

Napping when you’re tired,

After, eating something sweet.

How long could this respite,

Be interesting and fun?

How long before the boredom,

Would make you want to run?

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Shivoo …

Today’s word is “shivoo” …  a boisterous party or celebration. (Dictionary.com)

Yippee!

It’s time for a shivoo!

We are free at last,

We can celebrate,

But we’d better do it fast.

Who knows what new thing,

Will come around the bend,

Get your spirit right,

So that you can contend.

Put your armor on,

Watch and with faith wait,

Good things still will come,

Not all is up to fate.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Paucity … Sharp

Today’s word is “paucity” … smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness. (Dictionary.com)

Sharp

Broken conversations,

A paucity of space,

Ideas that are frozen,

Glaring face to face.

Neither understanding,

How the other thinks,

Wondering how it ends,

Neither one will blink.

Toe to toe, unblinking,

Each sure he is right,

Hoping they can settle,

Without a raging fight.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Neophyte … Cloudy

Today’s word is “neophyte” … a beginner or novice. (Dictionary.com)

Cloudy

In spiritual things,

Expert to a neophyte,

All are beginners.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Inimical … Skol

Today’s word is “inimical” … unfriendly; hostile. (Dictionary.com)

Skol

There were Vikings on T.V.

With inimical Viking gaze,

They stared down their enemies,

With contempt as they prepared to raze.

Raiding neighbors far and wide,

Seemed to be their occupation,

Sailing in their sturdy longships,

They terrorized the local populations.

All I know is that I’m glad,

No Vikings attack when on a cruise,

Imagine the state of the buffet,

If hungry Norsemen were on the loose!

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Farraginous … Melody

Today’s word is “farraginous” … heterogeneous; mixed.  (Dictionary.com)

Melody

Multi-colored birds

And farraginous flowers.

Nature’s anthems ring!

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Estivate … Sandy

Today’s word is “estivate” … to spend the summer, as at a specific place or in a certain activity. (Dictionary.com)

Sandy

My dream is to estivate,

Along a sandy beach,

By a Great Lake in Michigan,

But, it is out of reach.

An hour here, a minute there,

Is all there seems to be,

To sit and watch the seagulls,

Beside this inland sea.

A summer long might suffice,

To feel the sun on skin,

The calming water at my feet,

I wish I could begin.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Nonpareil … Highlight

Today’s word is “nonpareil” … a person or thing having no equal. (Dictionary.com)

Highlight

What would you put at the top,
Of all things nonpareil,
Money, family or fame,
Health or a prize Nobel?

What do you think of fortune?

Do you make your own?

Or is there some special guidance,

That you have sometimes known?

All things rust and decompose,

Except those things most treasured,

Love and kindness and true faith,

All things that can’t be measured.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Vermilion … Paint

Today’s word is “vermilion” … a brilliant scarlet red. (Dictionary.com)

Paint

Vermillion, orange,

Permanent rose, and cobalt.

Endless hues tease us.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Tickety-boo … Days

Today’s word is “tickety-boo” … fine; OK. (Dictionary.com)

Days

When all the things are tickety-boo,

It’s easy to find your smile,

But when they take a downward turn,

It might take a while.

Smiling through your pain is hard,

It takes faith in tomorrow,

And in God’s unfailing love,

That will cure all sorrow.

Anne Selleck

Copyright2021

Prothalamion … Anthem

Today’s word is “prothalamion” … a song or poem written to celebrate a marriage. (Dictionary.com)

Anthem

A prothalamion proclaims,

That heaven earth shall marry,

And a new city will come down,

We hope it will not tarry.

For evil roams around the world,

It’s mission, to destroy,

It will not win though, in the end,

For good has been deployed.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Manavelins … Oh

Today’s word is “manavelins” … miscellaneous scraps or small items, especially of food or gear. (Dictionary.com)

Oh

Manavelins fall.

Pieces of oak leaves, sadly.

But trauma will heal.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Terpsichordean… Creepy

Today’s word is “terpsichordean” … pertaining to dancing. (Dictionary.com)

Creepy

It’s nearly terpsichordean,

How they dangle from the trees,

Wiggling this way and that,

With the uncertain, daily breeze.

But that’s where all the dancing ends,

Because those caterpillars aim,

For the deck and chairs and plants,

To them it’s all the same.

They’ve finished off the oak leaves,

Leaving only tiny shreds,

Now they’re intent on their cocoons,

Where they will rest their heads,

If only there were fewer,

But there are way too many,

And we will have to wait for weeks,

Until there are not any.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Billows … Sent

Today’s word is “billows” … to swell out, puff up, etc., as by the action of wind. (Dictionary.com)

Sent

They sailed far from home,

The billows tossed and turned them.

Here they planted lives.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Fiddlesticks …

Today’s word is “fiddlesticks” … used to express impatience, dismissal, etc. (Dictionary.com)

Choices

Here’s a game of chess.

A tricky fork is played well.

Fiddlesticks, you say!

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Dissilient … Waves

Today’s word is “dissilient” … bursting apart; bursting open. (Dictionary.com)

Waves

The tulips are gone,

Their dissilient buds fallen,

Taking their place were Iris,

Now they too have withered,

But the Clemantis climb,

And buttercups sway,

And a single poppy opens.

Soon the Daylillies will bloom.

Each thing taking the place of the last.

A beautiful sequence,

Calming and orderly,

Comforting.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Picaresque … Alert

Today’s word is “picaresque” … of, relating to, or resembling rogues (Dictionary.com)

Alert

I used to think that villains,

We’re only on the screen,

That our real life, surely,

Did not contain the mean.

But the picaresque ones,

Inhabit all our spaces,

And are not revealed,

By the looks upon their faces.

In fact they are so sly,

That they disguise and disassemble,

Making them more dangerous,

When recognized, we tremble.

We may never understand,

Why these evil ones exist,

All we can do is love and pray,

And in the end, resist.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Ravelment … Emerge

Today’s word is “ravelment” … entanglement; confusion. (Dictionary.com)

Emerge

We’ve all been lonely,

Isolated for so long,

Hidden for months, years,

Fearful in this ravelment.

Anxious and unsure,

And now like tiny animals,

After a storm,

We timidly poke our noses out

Of our hiding places,

Hoping no predator is waiting.

Wanting to romp in the sun,

To live like we did before …

Warily we begin again.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Predilection … Yum

Today’s word is “predilection” … a tendency to think favorably of something in particular; partiality; preference.(Dictionary.com)

Yum

Squirrels make choices.

And have a predilection …

Peanuts, not acorns.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Schwa … Family

Today’s word is “schwa” … the mid-central, neutral vowel sound typically occurring in unstressed syllables in English, however spelled, as the sound of a  in alone  and sofa, e  in system, i  in easily, o  in gallop, u  in circus. The most common vowel sound in the English language. (Dictionary.com)

Family

Most of this world is filled,

With us, the ordinary,

Common as a schwa,

Yet we humans vary.

Some of us have “common” sense,

Some no sense at all,

Some make plans for ages,

Some are ready for a fall.

Though our commonalities,

Bind us yet together,

We still need to realize,

We’re the same in many measures.

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021

Banausic … Inky

Today’s word is “banausic” … serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical. (Dictionary.com)

Inky

The dome was black as night,

As black as space can be,

All banausic, starry formulas,

Faded slowly by degree.

The Milky Way appeared,

And then the vast unending,

Filled with beginnings wonders,

Twirling, twisting, wending.

How, in this universe,

Do we think we know a thing,

When worlds unnumbered spin,

And stars and planets sing?

Anne Selleck

Copyright 2021