Oct/Nov 2007 Poetry |
e c l e c t i c a
s p e c i a l f e a t u r e
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.
(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