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 current, elude, hidden, and lamp.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are borrow, phone, lost, and nothing.

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

Landscape with Widow, Early March
 
If you can see me
I can see you. I make no effort
to elude your view.
 
Jessica G. de Koninck

 

The Moon Has Nothing to Be Sad About: A Golden Shovel
 
Her soul is
hidden, even as her story pings to myriad in-boxes, click-bait perfected
like ganache, a drizzling of affronts, a surge of rage.
 
Devon Balwit

 

The Coyote
 
You could take a lamp,
climb the gate, walk the rutted path
 
Ann Malaspina

 

Current Events
 
If I had used
a safety pin, I'd be dead.
 
Andrew Shattuck McBride

 

Keeper of the House
 
And what of me, the current
keeper of the house?
 
Christine Taylor

 

A Little Bit of Magic
 
The hardest thing about trying to be a poet is
You have to read poetry almost daily
 
Bryan Prasifka

 

To My Dentist's Goldfish
 
one gill sipping water
the other skimming air
 
Jenny Wong

 

Snail
 
I see how you elude
 
Rachel Sprague

 

Herring
 
two swordfish probe
a silver ball of herring,
driving them toward the surface
 
Bob Bradshaw

 

Current
 
It is also
the volt in a person's brain allowing
them the luxury of glacial actions
 
Sheikha A.

 

Two Word Poems
 
We relinquish direction and desire,
all but the dream of fluidit
 
Antonia Clark

 

The Low Spark of Naming No One
 
Dull furnace murmurs concur
with your placid breathing.
 
Greta Bolger

 

Sunday at North Pond
 
They sail to the railing of an overlook on hope for the crumbs
the Park District says they shouldn't have—
bad for their digestion and attracts rodents.
 
Evan Richards

 

The Day My Mother Met Neko Case
 
For over an hour, they pierced
her body with curious needles,
forcing confessions
 
Sharon Mathews and David Mathews

 

When Valentine’s Day Falls On Ash Wednesday
 
I think of arrows slicing through tied-up Saint Sebastian
when his faith was no longer hidden.
 
David Mathews

 

I Confide in Buffy the Vampire Slayer about My Divorce
 
She wants to know which
of the men in my past is the Big Bad, the final
villain I can't elude
 
Jennifer Finstrom