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Words AE Stallings taught me

James Morehead

Asphodel stared back at me—

immortal flower from Elysian fields,

not a simple garden lily.


Caliginous appeared next, a verse

impenetrable as San Francisco fog—

wind-whipped, before being sun-dispersed.


I texted my dad “define punctilious,” a test

for the keen lexicographer's eye

inherited from his father, both word-obsessed.


And then I’m ten, peeking into dad’s office

where an IBM Selectric clunked

through the rafters; a punctuated chorus


creating dictionary definitions

on index cards, set in saw-toothed stacks—

a crenelated fortress for each new edition


copyedited and typeset into perfection

waiting for a writer, perhaps even Stallings,

to weave adumbrated into their latest collection.


All italicized words were harvested from the poems of AE Stallings. Definitions from “The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary, Fourth Edition”, Albert and Loy Morehead, Editors; Fourth Edition prepared by Philip D. Morehead.

  • ad·um'brate (ad-um'brāt) v.t. give a faint shadow or outline of; foreshadow. —ad"um·bra'tion, n.

  • as'pho·del (as'fə-del) n. a plant of the lily family.

  • ca-li'gi-nous (kə-lij'ə-nəs) adj. dark; obscure, —ca·li"gi·no'si·ty, n.

  • cren'el (kren'ə) n. an opening in a battlement; embrasure. —cren'el·ate" (-at") adj. —cren"el·a'tion, n. battlement.

  • punc-til'i-ous (punk-til'é-əs) adj. scrupulously careful. —punc-til'i·ous·ness, n.




James Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, California, author of three collections of poetry, and host of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast. James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning animated short and “gallery” was set to music (baritone and piano). His poems have appeared in multiple publications.

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