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 drape, harpoon, lullaby, and garden.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are pocket, reveal, ruin, and wake.

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

The Fugitive Whaler, 1850
 
But the ocean fights back.
Its rage is older than the flow
of the bloodlines in my veins.
 
David Mathews

 

Harpoon
 
it's just a harmonica
as everyone who loved Janis knows
 
Greta Bolger

 

If I hadn't picked up the turkey feather
 
I might still be staring at a passing car,
caught in the thick craw of going or
not going
 
Judy Kaber

 

Round Perdition's Flames
 
One of the things I like best about my ex-husband
is that he read Moby-Dick after seeing
The Wrath of Khan
 
Jennifer Finstrom