Letter Boxed January 06, 2023 Answers

A poem with words found in yesterday’s puzzle, including those from Mark’s short-word grid: ketch, muckle, kelt, two, owl, lum, outcharm, welcome, chum, rockwork, earthworm, chuckle, cumulate, clockwork, mark, howl

THE NIGHT HOWL
(Setting is a fishing village in the north of Scotland, where ‘muckle’ and ‘lum’ are perhaps still in everyday use)

A ketch in the bay,
Muckle kelt in the stream,
Two fishwives singing:
It’s a screech-owl’s dream.

Atop a stone lum
‘Gainst a darkening sky,
Our owl outcharms
With her owlish eye.

And then down below
In the blue twilight,
Come the welcome dogs,
Their fur burning bright.

They welcome the fishermen
Back from the sea,
Their teeth bared with joy
And their tails wagging free.

With the dogs in the lane
And the owl up high
It’s a tableau vivant
‘Gainst the darkening sky,

‘Till an evening’s hearth fire
Sends smoke up the lum
And the owl takes flight,
We can hear her wings hum.

Down the rockwork quay
The dogs follow her straight
To the bay where the ketch
Is in anchoring state.

They stop at the shoreline,
Still not saying muckle
(So quiet, almost,
As an earthworm’s chuckle);

But then there arises
The dogs’ frantic bark,
And the owl calls back
In the deepening dark.

Perched high on the mizzen
She calls to her chums;
And their voices all mingle;
Cacophony thrums.

Though we may be unable
To catch muckle sleep
While the owl screams
And the barking dogs leap,

Still we’re outcharmed
By this night symphony,
The cumulate voices
Of owl and dogs free.

As the bay water shines
In a moonlit glow,
One more owl’s call
To the dogs down below:

Aloft the aft mast,
With her silhouette stark
As a clockwork’s harking
Of the midnight mark,

Our screech-owl howls
Her avian bark,
And the dogs howl back
In the deepening dark.

BALD — DEFORMING (13/2)
OR:
DEFORMING — GLOBAL (15/2)

Blaming Glorified (at any given moment on Faux News) or Ambling Glorified (as the opposite of golf, a good walk spoiled) or even Embalming Glorified (in arguing against cremation).

FOAMBOARD-DEALING

BALD – DEFORMING 13/2. It had been a while since I last scored a 13/2, and I was determined to exhaustively look for one with this array (the fact that the Greek Orthodox Church is celebrating the Epiphany today may have played a part in my finally succeeding). Went through lots of words including LAND, BOARD(ING), BROAD, BIRD, BINGO, FLAME, RADIO, BADGE, BARGE, ARDEB, FILMED, BARONG, FLAMINGO, FROGMAN (FROGMEN), RAMBLING, LABORING, GOBLIN, MALFORMED, FORBID, LABROID, FLAMBEING, plus some interesting anagrams (such as GEMINAL / MEALING or RIBALD / BRIDAL).

Framing – globed
Lots of good ones today!

I had MANGOLD – DEBRIEF, but in an attempt to include my name I came up with FROG – GOBLIN – NAMED

FARMING – GLOBED right off, but knowing there were tons of solutions out there today came up with the following as well:

EMBALMING – GLORIFIED (process reserved for saints?)
AMBLING – GLORIFIED (a good walk is often a spiritual experience 🙂
BEAMING – GLORIFIED
FADE – EMBROILING
FLAMINGO – ORBED (an ornamental staff in some bird cultures?)

Nice to have a chance to play today!

farming – globed

MIND ↘️

MIND—DEF—FLOG—GRAB
BARM—MIND—DEF—FLOG
GLOB—BARM—MIND—DEF
FORB—BEG—GLAM—MIND

Flamingo orbed here 🙂

FARMING GOBLINED

BALD DEFORMING

Debrief,Flamingo
With visions of a pink lawn ornament having been pantsed.
My first two word solution in a few days.

A banner day for us Letterboxers, from with Jill‘s mystical versifying to a near surfeit of inventive solutions. I’m looking at PG in particular, but really everyone has been at the top of their game today!