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 blanket, acorn, backward, and refract.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are heirloom, forbid, seven, and boundary.

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

Idyll
 
They'd staked their lives on wind
and high plains, then lost their claim
against time.
 
Morgan Gracye Wilow

 

Door
 
A crow has murder on its mind.
Black thoughts before the rain.
 
Antonia Clark

 

Happiness
 
But no you cling
like an overwhelming perfume on a sweater
that I intend to shed.
 
Bob Bradshaw

 

My Mother's Family Tree
 
my mother and
her twin refracted
by the brittle paper's lens
 
Jennifer Finstrom