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 ground, triangle, vision, and knit.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are well, dissolve, present, and bed.

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

New Mexico Whiptail
 
In the early stretch of morning, thus
does the sun spill from within
my back drawn to pale yellow stripes.
 

Judy Kaber
 

puja (Spotlight Runner Up!)
 
she was a new canadian
but not so canadian
to put our dead in the ground
 

Mala Rai
 

Theology
 
me in my room
torn between junior sainthood
and less spiritual aspirations
 

Antonia Clark
 

An Only Child
 
In moving currents we swim stroke for stroke,
I fish your deepest thoughts,
you net my silent dreams.
 

Barbara De Franceschi
 

Worn
 
Knit
purl
knit.
 

Nicole Perez
 

Playing Mozart to My Garden
 
To get the best work from anyone
remove stress from their lives.
Same goes for flowering plants.
 

Bob Bradshaw
 

Good Night
 
She taught us all to cook
with gestures and incantations.
 

Steven Deutsch
 

Smoke, Onions, Loss
 
How I kept a secret
place out of sight, bowered
in the lilacs
 

Miriam Kotzin
 

How to Find Serenity in the Offseason
 
A moment of humility, or maybe you're still hungover
from keeping pace with those English kids on gap year
 

Evan Richards
 

I Confide in the Snow Queen about My Divorce
 
My birthday hovers on the edge of winter,
and I've always felt it around me like snow about to fall.
 

Jennifer Finstrom