to try to include in your next poem/story
Asterismal - of or relating to asterisms or constellations
Astichous - in botany, not arranged in rows
Astroite - a radiated or star-shaped mineral or fossil
Bloodflower - a tropical herb (Asclepias curassavica) with orange-red flowers
Diapasm - perfume of powdered aromatic herbs sometimes made into little balls and strung together
Diapason - a burst of sound
Diarize - to keep or write in a diary
Diatomin - a yellow or yellowish brown pigment found in certain algae and diatoms
Equant - of, being, or relating to a crystal having equal or nearly equal diameters in all directions
Gradine - one of a series of low steps or seats raised one above another; a shelf at the back of an altar on which candlesticks and flowers are placed in a Christian church
Intervert - to turn to a course or use other than the proper one; misuse
Kippage - an excited or irritated state; commotion, confusion
Kithe - to make known
Notionate - fanciful, notional; headstrong, stubborn
Perimorph - a crystal of one species enclosing one of another species
Peripeteia - a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work
Quaesitum - something sought for; end, objective
Rounceval - something very large; huge
Senecio - any of a large genus (Senecio) of widely distributed composite plants that have alternate or basal leaves and flower heads usually with yellow ray flowers
Senectitude - the final stage of the normal lifespan
Tragedienne - an actress who plays tragic roles
Urceolate - shaped like an urn
Urostege - a scale on the underside of the tail of a snake
Urushiye - a Japanese color print in which the dark colors are printed with a lustrous medium commonly considered to be lacquer
Windflaw - a gust of wind; flaw
If any of these words make their way into your next poem/story, please tag me, or send me a link. I would love to read them—always.
More: Lists of Beautiful Words ⚜ Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs
Fret not, the crocus
Has not croaked its last
The trembling toad
Awaiting a rushing spring
The daffodils dreaming of
Frolics and foibles
The barren trees waiting
To stretch toward the sun
The hush of the lark
The ice of the night
A breath held
A song remembered
Who:
For my love, to make her smile
When a purple blossom makes
Me think of her favorite color.
For my Tumblr followers when
I post proof of my wilderness walks.
For my soul, so I might revisit these
Moments of awe and beauty.
For these,
I take pictures of flowers.
What:
A moment caught in my
Binary bug net,
A digital trace of my travels,
A daily commute or intentional stroll.
And along the way,
I take pictures of flowers.
Where:
My cloud storage fills
To the brim, and I deign to
Empty a single pixel.
Yellow, then red warnings of
Limited space,
But still,
I take pictures of flowers
Why:
To preserve what I cannot
Trust myself to remember.
Every detail, every shimmer on
A petal, every ring of color,
Every fold and roll and pleat.
To replace what I cannot have;
With no box or garden or
Sun-exposed pot,
I can only hold onto these beauties
In digital form.
When:
The golden hours escape me,
But they are probably sour grapes,
A cast of yellow hue on a face,
Not meant for leaf or colored bract.
Nay, whenever the feeling hits,
I pull out my device.
No process or plan in mind,
I snap one or two decent photos
And continue on my way.
Moment by moment
I take pictures of flowers.
How:
Only carefully, gently,
Holding the camera as I would
Carry a basket of down.
Motionless, I hold my breath and
Press the button.
My phone, with the help
Of an AI worth my trust,
Or with my moderately expensive
Camera I would like to buy
A macro attachment for.
I know not the specifics of how
My precious ladies make it onto
Film or image, but even so
I take pictures of flowers.
windows open season. waking up to birdsong season. smelling the dewy grass season. twirling in a long skirt season. life feels worth living again season. taking all of my meals outside of possible season. reasoning how far I can get by bike ride and pedaling out anyway season.
For all those who need this right now. Stay strong! Support your friends and be there for each other.
To do nothing but stare at a wall, watch the sun wash over old paint. To cry because something blew into my eye. I thought of something funny and remembered your face. To cut a carrot the slow way, julienning each disc, one by one, to put my face over the pot as hot water boils. To do nothing but fold my clothes as if my hand was an iron. To watch your yawn like a slow-motion movie. To touch the thin film of dust without rush to wipe it away. To write as if I were talking to myself. To do nothing the whole day. To fill it to the brim with nothing, nothing but nothing.
Colors are proven to have a profound effect on the human psyche and moods.
Territories use colors to represent themselves on their flags.
The significance of colors is proven by the high value that our ancestors placed on certain plants or substances that could be made into dyes, such as the Imperial Purple of Rome that was produced from a mollusk that was valued more highly than gold, or the saffron crocus that produced the sacred color of the same name.
Prior to the development of chemical dyes, the creation of colors that did not fade in the Sun or wash away was a combination of art, science, and magic, akin to an alchemical process.
The impact of the Sun shining through stained glass, painting the interiors of churches with living colors that shimmered and danced, in a medieval world where color was often a privilege of the wealthy few, can only be imagined.
The 7 colors of the rainbow—which break down into 700 shades that are visible to the naked eye—are associated with the seven planets, the days of the week, the Seven Heavens, and the seven notes of the musical scale.
Night, the absence of light; mourning, sobriety, denial; authority; perfection and purity; maturity and wisdom.
Although it’s the opposite of white, both shades are, in fact, due to an absence of color, and technically speaking black is not a “color” at all. This doesn’t stop it having a wealth of symbolic meaning.
Truth and the intellect; wisdom, loyalty, chastity; peace, piety, and contemplation; spirituality; eternity.
There’s something cool and detached about blue that gives rise to its reputation for spirituality and chastity. Above all, blue is the color of the sky. Like the sky, blue is infinitely spacious. It contains everything, and yet contains nothing. The color is therefore associated with ideas of eternity.
Poverty, humility, practicality.
Primarily associated with the Earth, soil, the raw element before it is covered with greenery. The word for earth, in Latin, is humus, which carries the same root as humility. Religious ascetics wear brown as a reminder of this quality and also of their voluntary material poverty.
Sobriety, steadiness, modesty.
Gray is the midway point between black and white, and tellingly the “gray area” is an area of indetermination, indecision, or ambiguity. To be described as gray is rather less than flattering, since gray is such a subdued and neutral color, and implies that the person blends into the background.
However, gray is also a color of balance and reasonableness and is the color used, in photography, to balance all others.
Because people’s hair turns gray with age, the word is often used to describe elderly people and is also a color of wisdom.
New life, resurrection, hope; the sea; fertility and regeneration; recycling, environmental awareness; a lucky color; an unlucky color.
Green is an amalgam of blue and yellow, and is the color of the fourth chakra. Green is the universal symbol for “Go!” to red’s “Stop!”
Wealth; a chameleon personality.
Not strictly a color as such, but a combination of many other colors. The word is generally used to describe cloth or clothing. The rainbow nature of motley means that whoever wears it has as many aspects as there are colors, a chameleon personality, and it can indicate the trickster or fool (as worn by the jester, or the Fool in the Tarot) as well as kings, emperors, and deities.
In the Bible, Joseph’s coat of many colors is the object of much envy.
Balance between spirit and sexuality; fertility and yet virginity; energy; the Sun; like yellow, orange is believed to be an appetite stimulant.
Orange has two aspects that we see time and time again, pivoting between the material and spiritual worlds, which is not surprising given that the color itself is a balance between red and yellow. As such, it represents the second chakra, the first being red, and the third, yellow.
Femininity, innocence, good health, love, patience.
Pink is the ultimate feminine color, being flirty, girlish, and innocent at the same time. Pale pink is used as the symbol for a baby girl, just as pale blue is used for baby boys. This feminine angle is why the color pink has been adopted as a symbol of gay pride. Pink is the color of universal, unconditional love.
Royalty and pomp; power, wealth, majesty.
Purple, or indigo, is the color associated with the sixth chakra. Since it was first discovered, purple has been the color of choice to denote wealth and power. Emperors, kings, and the more powerful members of the clergy—such as bishops—choose the colour as a way of defining their status. This is because the dye itself was originally available from one source and one source only; the secretions of a certain gland of an unfortunate sea snail called the Murex brandaris. Therefore, purple was extremely costly to produce and strictly the color of those who could afford it, since the dye itself was more expensive even than gold. The most popular shade of the color is called Tyrian Purple (named for the city of Tyre, where it was manufactured).
Vitality and life-force; fire, the Sun, the South; blood; good luck and prosperity; power and authority; masculine energy; war and anger; passion, energy, sexuality.
One of the three primary colors, bright red pops out of whatever environment it happens to be in and grabs our attention more than any other color. Moreover, it is the first actual color that is seen by babies.
Spirituality, holiness, good fortune.
Named after the saffron crocuses whose stigmas create the color, the harvesting of these delicate plant parts is a labor-intensive and time-critical matter and so the actual dye is costly to produce.
Knowledge and intelligence; piety, sobriety, humility, temperance; peace and spirituality.
Violet is the color associated with the seventh chakra. There are many shades of violet ranging from ethereal pale shades through to the darker mauve, considered the only color acceptable as a relief from the relentless strict mourning convention of black and gray in Victorian times. Violet is a combination of red and blue, and its association with temperance is indicated in some Tarot suits.
The humble qualities of violet as a color come from the flower. The tiny violet grows close to the ground, hidden modestly in among the grass, yet noticeable because of its striking color.
Purity, virginity; death and rebirth, a beginning and an end; in the Far East, mourning.
White is both the absence of any color and the sum of all colors together, so in a sense it can mean everything or nothing. This combination of all colors has given white the name of the “many-colored lotus” in Buddhist teachings.
The Sun; power, authority; the intellect and intuition; goodness; light, life, truth, immortality; endurance; the Empire and fertility [China]; cowardice, treachery.
Yellow is one of the three primary colors and is related to the third chakra which lives in the region of the solar plexus. This is apt, since yellow, like red and orange, is one of the Sun colors. It could be argued that yellow is the most dazzling of the three, so the association makes good sense.
Because leaves turn yellow and then to black with the onset of fall, in several places, including Ancient Egypt, yellow is a color of mourning. A yellow cross was painted on doors as a sign of the plague, possibly for the same reasons, and even today yellow marks off a quarantined area.
Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References More: On Colours