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 carnival, stucco, mustache, essential. Below are the resulting selected poems.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are mutant, polar, temple, and shrimp.

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

 

Elephants
 
Gray days
filled with basics
of essential living  
 
Deborah P. Kolodji

 

Imaginings
 
I thought I saw you in the rain drops
splashing against the stucco swirls
on the garden wall.  
 
Barbara De Franceschi

 

Three Idylls
 
The man with the mustache
was a magician. He was lean
and wicked, the shadow
of a streetlamp.  
 
Jennifer Finstrom

 

Carnival Whore
 
She sucks blue cotton candy through her teeth
and sways to the sounds of the midway.  
 
Patricia Parkinson

 

Geraniums
 
What's essential
is their bloody fists, their demand
to be seen  
 
Carol Fant

 

Do they call this Tinseltown all year?
 
Tinseltown is a carnival-gone-wrong,
a clown's gaping mouth, colors that shriek
as you pay for your ticket  
 
Julie King