Random Acts of Poetry

Improvisation

We, man and woman,
decided last evening
to impersonate dark trees.

Our elbows
were the crooks of branches.
Our feet disappeared in the dirt.

My thoughts hardened
to wood. You hardly breathed for fear
of roosting nightbirds.

We went too far in the forest.
By morning our fingers
scratched at the sky.

To the whack of an ax
we drank our warm rain,
mindless and mum to the root.

Photo of the Week (by me)

Full circle. Click the pic for a closer view. Now. You will.

Random Sequence

"I began to have a peculiar feeling that I've only experienced a few other times in my life: a contradictory sensation of time standing still while events rush forward at terrible speed. I'd felt it before, for example, in a car wreck, as the vehicle I was in was rolling over on a highway.

"Involuntarily, it seemed, I climbed up on the iron fence at the edge of the park that faces Manhattan. So did several other people of the sort who don't normally climb fences."
--from "The Towers" (by me), originally published by BiffsBoards

Word of the Day: honeyfuggle

Pronounced HUN-ee-FUG-uhl. TWITO, page 67!

This comic features a word from page 67 of my book The Word I'm Thinking Of: A Devilish Dictionary of Difficult Words, available here.

Link Mania: Feel That Moazagoatl!

21 Wonderful Words for Wind
It's an ill moazagoatl that blows nobody any good.

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11 Words That Will Make You Sound Super Freaking Smart
Meh. Too easy a list, I think. What about you? Read or listen to TWITO to sound keenly perspicacious.

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Earth Day: A World of Words
We celebrated Earth Day this week. Earth is one planet that doesn't need ecopoiesis.

The T&T List

Manu Prakash
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Digital Public Library of America
Ljubljana
DreamDry
Peru Harri
Cliveden House
Morbid Anatomy Museum
Zohydro
Land of Nod
Lytro Illum
Max Tegmark

Word of the Day: palter

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's...

palter [POL-ter] (verb)

To talk or act insincerely, use trickery or equivocate

"He had faked illnesses before, so I couldn't tell whether he was paltering or faltering."

~~~

TWITO, page 106!

Fire Up Your Kindles!

TWITO News! Starting today (April 20), the Kindle edition of my book, The Word I'm Thinking Of: A Devilish Dictionary of Difficult Words, is FREE on Amazon.com through Thursday, April 24. Logophiles and pinchfists, rejoice!

The Word I'm Thinking Of

No Kindle? The paperback is only $6.75 on Amazon. The audiobook is only $17.95 on Audible.com (or free with a 30-day trial). And keep in mind that the Kindle app (which doesn't require a physical Kindle e-reader) is a free download.

Photo of the Week (by me)

Here be dragons. Click for a closer view (if you dare!)

Link Mania: An Abominable It Boy Sniffs Petrichor

20 words that originated in the 1920s

Would you "Adam and Eve" it if an abominable snowman got a makeover, did some press ups, and became an It boy?

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38 wonderful foreign words we could use in English

Goldilocks was Swedish?

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15 underused words to add to your vocabulary

Including "petrichor" [PET-rik-ur] -- TWITO, page 111!

Random Sequence

"Will decided to let his exhaustion show on his face. Sandy, who seemed as energetic as ever, walked over to him, shook her blonde head, and said, 'I guess it's break time.' They descended to the street and began to walk toward a fizzing neon sign in the distance: 'Zarraro's Diner.' It smelled like fried onions inside, but at least it was cool."
--from "The Burden" (by me), originally published by ululation.com

Word of the Day: diegesis

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's...

diegesis [die-uh-JEE-sis] (noun) diegetic [die-uh-JET-ik] (adjective)

A narrative; in film studies, the fictional world, milieu, or universe in which the story takes place

"'We're going to have to add some diegetic harpsichord to make that damn scene work,' the director mumbled."

That music you hear while watching TV or a film, which the characters in the story don't hear, serves a diegetic purpose: to tell you what you should be feeling or how you should interpret a scene on an emotional level. But you already knew that, right? Queue the wah-wah.

~~~

TWITO, page 41!

Photo of the Week (by me)

Mother Mary comes to me. (And I'm not even Catholic.) Click for a closer view. You know you want to.

Words in the News: intubate

At a press conference about the recent mass stabbing at a Pennsylvania high school, the doctor mentioned intubation and the word intubate [IN-too-bait]. It means to insert a tube into someone. (Don't try this at home.) A synonym is "cannulate" or "cannulise". A cannula [CAN-yoo-la] is a flexible tube.

Words in the News (Flight 370): chirp

CNN (aka the "Mystery of Flight 370" network) says the missing plane's black box is pinging but also "chirping". It's not just for the birds. "Chirp" is a technical term for a signal.

Link Mania: Muddy Yiddish Sorrows

Naming Unnamed Sensations: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

When "melancholy" just isn't enough.

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English words of Yiddish origin

Admit it. You're a word...maven.

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Why It’s Called an ‘Equinox’ and Other Delightful Spring Words You Should Know

Ready for "prime time"? How about "mud time"?

Word of the Day: infrangible

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's...

infrangible [in-FRAN-ji-bul] (adjective)

Unbreakable; not violated

"Hearts will never be practical until they can be made infrangible," said the Wizard. The Tin Man was riveted, but could only say, "Huh?"

~~~

TWITO, page 72!