In an ongoing series, the editors, former contributors, and readers of Eclectica have been invited to write a poem containing four pre-chosen words. The words for this issue are amethyst, sailboat, transparent, and premonition. Below are the resulting selected poems.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are lure, prayer, vinyl, and exit.

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(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole poem!)

 

august at 11
 
there were starfish, everywhere
an army of them, lingering silently
at the edge of the ocean  
 
Dorothee Lang

 

Two Word Poems
 
Your rootless husband left on a sailboat
and won't return before June. Last night,
you dreamed he impregnated a mermaid.  
 
Jayne Pupek

 

The Art of the Beachcomber
 
In love with the sharp light of stars,
I stumbled on a new style
of belonging  
 
Ray Templeton

 

The heart stops momentarily
 
Once blown off skin, clothes
have no memory of wholeness.  
 
Arlene Ang

 

Demeter's Response
 
The day you were taken, transplanted
into cold dark, sailboats navigated
the fog in circles.  
 
Ellen Kombiyil

 

Edvard Munch on Women
 
I was like a man who overcomes his fear of drowning
by taking a sailboat into the heart
of a storm.  
 
Bob Bradshaw

 

Recall is the Ecstasy
 
roasted coffee smell
sits on my skin
an aromatic sailboat
adrift on a winter airstream  
 
Barbara De Franceschi

 

Breakfast in the Open, c. 1910
 
Look beyond the trees now
to where the river is drowsing.
It is a flat transparent mirror, at once
consuming and giving back.  
 
Jennifer Finstrom