January 18th is Thesaurus Day, and as I write this, I am still smiling about Amelia Bedelia thinking that a thesaurus is another type of dinosaur as she helps out in the library one day!! Having just finished watching the latest installment of the Jurassic Park series (not sure why we watched the whole movie, but we did – kind of like eating a bad sandwich fully because ….), I seem to be seeing dinosaurs everywhere… even including seeing a whole thesaurus in a teacup!! Read on, and you will know what I am talking about..

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Poetic Sundays: Teacup Dictionary or a Thesaurus in a Teacup?!

With Thesaurus Day not too far away, I thought that this poetic form is the perfect fit for this week’s Poetic Sundays section. The Teacup Dictionary is simply what it says it is: a dictionary in a teacup, or if we use another word, a thesaurus in a teacup!

What is a Teacup Dictionary Poem?

The teacup dictionary poem was created by Rose Jones in 2009, and is made up of as many lines as the number of syllables in the title word of the poem.

In a teacup dictionary poem, we pick any random multi-syllable word(more than 3 syllables) from the dictionary to be the title. Each following line defines or expands on the meaning of the title word – hence dictionary.

And each following line, starting with the first line – the rim line, drops one syllable per line, reducing until there is a one-syllable word. The last line of the poem – the saucer line – follows that single-syllable word line; and makes an observation about the title word using the same number of syllables as in the title word.

What about the teacup, you ask? Well, the lines are centered so they form a teacup on a saucer (that last line is the saucer!)

A Teacup Dictionary Poem’s Characteristics

So a teacup dictionary poem’s elements are that at its most basic, it is:

• stanzaic: is a single stanza of ‘x’ # of lines determined by the number of syllables in the title dictionary word
• syllabic: x/x-1/x-2/… 1/x ; where ‘x’ is the number of syllables in the title word
• unrhymed (but nowhere does it state, from what I could find, that it cannot be rhymed – so the poet can do what they wish)
• centered on the page
• titled: the dictionary word is the title
• remember to pick a multisyllabic word (preferably more than three syllables) to be the title word.

h/t: AllPoetry

My Teacup in a Thesaurus, or my Teacup Dictionary Attempts

Octothorpe

Hashtag.
Pound.
Means eight fields.

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Atmospheric River

Pineapple express!
Tropical plume.
Vapor surge.
Cloud band!
Storms….
Fresh water transporters!

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

And then this last one, a pair of stacked teacups and saucers!

Absquatulate

Disappear!
Decamp!
Bolt!
Yes, it means flee!
Cut and run!
vamoose!
Scram!
It does mean flee!

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Recently

On My Blog And the Homefront

Here are the posts since my last scribblings:

• Being Amelia Bedelia for a Day —> #LiveLikeaBookChallenge is so much fun; you can still take part in it, so check out my post for what I did to live like a book and find out how you can join in the fun!!
• Five for Friday: Fun Bookish Memes and More
• 13 Tiny Habits I Want to Work On
• From Beautiful Beaches to Bollywood and Lost Things
• Really Looking Forward to these Books
• A Little Magic is Always Wonderful!
• My Top Ten (*2) Books of Last Year
• Every Word has Magic and Power and Stories!
• Sunday Scribblings #129: Rewrite the Story of Our Life

Upcoming

On My Blog and On the Homefront

I missed a few days of the UBC due to travel but hope to continue consistently for the rest of the challenge. With rains here for the first half of the coming week, we will pretty much stay indoors for most of the time, but yay to the rain!

This Week’s Celebrations

Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)

• Literary birthdays this week include: Susan Sontag and Rebecca Stead on January 16th; Jan 17th is Anne Brontë, Benjamin Franklin, Michelle Obama, and Javed Akhtar; the 18th of January is A.A. Milne; Edgar Allan Poe, Patricia Highsmith, Pat Mora, and Julian Barnes on the 19th of January; Tami Hoag, Vanessa Diffenbaugh on January 20th; Francis Bacon, John Donne, and Lord Byron on the 22nd of Jan.
• Book Publishers Day is on January 16 every year
• January 18th is National Thesaurus Day and National Winnie The Pooh Day

Foodie Celebrations

• The 16th of January is International Hot and Spicy Food Day as well as National Fig Newton Day
• It is National Hot Buttered Rum Day on the 17th of January
• January 19th is National Popcorn Day as well as World Quark Day (quark is a dairy product very similar to cottage cheese (but not really), and popular across Europe)
• The 20th of January is both National Buttercrunch Day and National Cheese Lover’s Day
• Then it is National Granola Bar Day on the 21st
• National Blonde Brownie Day is observed on the 22nd of January

Other Celebrations

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day  is celebrated on the third Monday in January
• January 17th is International Mentoring Day, so this is your chance to sign up to mentor someone, or simply go ahead and be one!
• It is National Disc Jockey Day on the 20th of January
• The 21st of January is National Hugging Day…. 🙂
• On the 22nd of January, let us celebrate life itself (which we should everyday, right?) as it is Celebration of Life Day 

Multi-day Celebrations

• This coming week of January is Hunt for Happiness Week (third full week) as well as National Healthy Weight Week and National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week (these two begin on the third Sunday)
• No Name-Calling Week – January 16-20, 2023

And an Un-event

• Do you want to forego all these observations and do nothing? Well, wish granted, for it is National Nothing Day on the 16th of January!!

Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, you have reached the end of this Sunday Scribblings! As always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this post. Do you own ? And do let me know if you plan to celebrate any of these mentioned celebrations this coming week/month?

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon. And of course to the Ultimate Blog Challenge as well!