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 silent, puzzle, envelop, and hypnotize.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are afternoon, ordinary, obscure, and spoil.

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

In The Rearview
 
I try to puzzle out his life, to find the crooks and bends that might match my own
 
Judy Kaber

 

Tiger
 
This one lies mute in a muddle of polygons
that envelop his muscle-bound frame.
 
Nancy Jentsch

 

Life Story
 
darkness envelops all
 
Antonia Clark

 

(W)holes
 
I'm exhausted, hypnotized, waiting for the
secret word that will bring me back to me
 
Jen Davis

 

Chapstick Hypnosis
 
Her eyes widen and close
like an embrace, as if she had unlocked
the secret to womanhood
 
Gina O'Neill

 

"A Girl I Know" by Heidi Kell
 
But what really stands out to me is how no one has been given a date of death, not even the great-grandparents from Quebec who would have been well over 100 had they been alive. My 18-year-old mother must have known this, just as I know the date of her own death.
 
Jennifer Finstrom