Luminous Words
Alpenglow, Iridescent, Pellucid, Incandescent, and Bioluminescence
Alpenglow
An alpenglow haiku:
Watching day's last light
illuminate distant peaks—
wasted radiance.
Iridescent
I wrote this poetry comic about iridescence for my book THE ART OF LIVING:
Iridescence Soap bubbles, oil puddles, old CDs. Weird birds, sea shells, beetle wings. In ordinary places The world gleams.
Pellucid
“Pellucid,” like “lucid,” comes from a Latin word that means “to shine through.” Pellucid writing shines with clarity. Easier to say than to do.
Incandescent
The word incandescent is useful when applied to a light bulb, but I like it even better when it describes a person: someone brilliant, passionate, and glowing with energy.
Bioluminescence
An incomplete list of life forms that exhibit bioluminescence:
anglerfish, jellyfish, viperfish,
dragonfish, lanternfish, pineconefish,
vampire squid, firefly squid, colossal squid,
fireflies, glow worms, click beetles,
some shrimp, fungi, coral, clams, bacteria, sea slugs, sea snails,
and krill.
Next week on Words of Wonder: Extravagant Words
One month until POETRY COMICS hits the shelves! If you pre-order my new book you can get a signed print of my “Bookshelf” comic. Details here: https://poetrycomics.chroniclebooks.com/
If you’d like a signed, personalized copy of POETRY COMICS, please order from my fantastic local bookstore, Watermark Books. Thank you for your support! I can’t wait for you all to read this book.
I loved this. Thank you. :)
A wonderful thing about iridescence - it's a way to colour things that aren't actually coloured at all. For example, there's a type of butterfly that *looks* a luminous bright blue - but it's just the way the light is interacting with its surface, and in reality it's a dull brown colour: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/the-butterfly-effect-how-blue-morpho-wings-could-stop-counterfeiting This trick (structural colour) is leading to all sorts of weird new experiments - and might also help with keeping buildings cool, by changing their external colour in realtime in reaction to sunlight. VERY TRIPPY INDEED.
Love referring to a person as incandescent. Brilliant!