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 thorn, meander, expel, and conceal.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are chameleon, liquid, cupboard, and gutter.

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

Ghost Story
 
I could have mistaken
the gushing in the pipes for sobbing.
 
Bob Bradshaw

 

Go ahead
 
Meander far on unmapped roads.
Pick hallucinatory weeds.
 
Greta Bolger

 

Why My Body
 
Because I've stuffed it with secrets
and let it make me sorry.
 
Antonia Clark

 

Two Word Poems
 
How do we live here?
Like the deer
foraging our seasons.
 
Taylor Graham

 

Intermediate Algebra
 
The verb
is a variation on a single idea:
equal or not equal.
 
Jennifer Finstrom

 

( this it is )
 
Gaping mouth at every devastation, butterfly wings of brick coming down, concrete clouds and the hardening.
 
j. a. tyler