Anemology
An entry for the The A-Z of Unusual Words Challenge (Part A)
My chosen word: Anemology - the study of winds
I love wind. Windy days, I think, make you remember more than anything that there are things on this planet over which you have no control - and I love that. Wind is passionate; it's a driver. That feeling of it pummelling you on a really windy day just cannot be beaten.
I can remember going to the beach when there was a hurricane. A lodger of ours who was also a friend asked my mum if he could take my brother and I down to the dunes to experience this wild storm. My mum may have had her reservations but she let us go.
What power! Waves hitting cliffs, the noise was a roar and the sand stung our face like Lilliputians with spears. It was terrifying but wonderful.
That's why I've chosen Anemology. I'm not a professor but I do study winds and there are lots of different kinds.
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Elusive.
Here and not here
Teasing with your touch
Light and robust
Influencing
Not Instagrammable.
Cool caress on a hot day
Intimately pleasurable.
Hair in my mouth, pushed away
Pushing it back,
Taking a joke too far.
Rippling fields: nature's percussionist.
Tickling trees to reveal their secrets,
Whispering.
Grand interrogator!
You rage too:
Constant bullying distorting shape.
And you fight!
Armouries of rain pellets
Raw power
Creating awe
With your coerced accomplices.
Plastic bag prisoners
On barbed wire fences.
Mercurial though -
Sending them high too, like a giggling toddler;
Bringing them low to race across the ground.
You are
Like a mystical spirit
Pervading the air,
Whirling your way around the world.
(Poem - 112 words)
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This was written in response to Penny Fuller's challenge which you can read about here:
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Comments (17)
I was really sure this was going to be about the study of anemones and was pleasantly surprised to learn a completely new meaning (though anemones would have been pleasant too.)
This was excellent Rachel- feels like a winner to me. "the sand stung our face like Lilliputians with spears."- not even in the poem itself, but I loved the description. You've caught wind in all its different moods here, and I like the way it's both fickle and foul!
Another new word for me 😊… great poem… I too love the wind and am exhilarated by it ✅.
Fantastic choice of word, and a genuinely brilliant poem; I love the different personalities and roles you find in the wind, and the descriptors of its actions are so delightfully vivid! Wonderful work all around :)
I love the way you romanticized something that most people find a nuisance!! Beautiful work Rachel!
I do love the wind -- but sometimes it is too much. I love your descriptions: "the sand stung our face like Lilliputians with spears," and "Armouries of rain pellets." I have waged war with those little devils! lol Outstanding!
My favorite lines Plastic bag prisoners On barbed wire fences. so good Rachel
That hair in the mouth was sooo relatable. And if I'm wearing lipstick, my hair would stick to it. Lol. Loved your word and poem!
Such a powerful invisible force! Loved “ nature's percussionist” as a descriptor! Great word and poem! Loved reading your connection paragraphs too!
Awesome poem based on your word. You used some amazing descriptions.
I love the thought that you put into this, Rachel! As you show in your poem, wind can be many things and all them seem to strike many of us as if inhabited by mercurial personality, sometimes adversarial or sometimes gentle in any given moment!
Not instagrammable! Love it.
Oh this was so cool! Great job capturing the spirit of wind!
Thank for teaching me a new word. Loved you poem. It made the wind visible. Well done.
Tis awesome, chum. Thanks for the new word! Like Shaun, I loved the wind-feel to this all!
I thought this would be about blood☺ Wind is such a great topic, more enigmatic in its own way for sure.
Your poem flowed like the wind! Well done