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 maze, parade, loom, and recognize.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are circle, remain, illusion, and bridge.

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

Jim Morrison in Paris
 
Your chest felt heavy, like a half
filled sandbag. It's the Parisian
air, nearly as polluted as L.A.
 
Bob Bradshaw

 

Tekla at the Grand Parade
 
She's a minority within a minority,
and no one would take a photograph
of her unless mayhem erupts.
 
Jim Pascual Agustin

 

From His Bedroom, the Boy Watches
 
Each morning
he stands at this glass edge, this place
where the insides of his world meet
 
Patrick Kindig

 

Denial
 
Time is jilted.
Healing self-harms.
Sadness is content to loom with insistence.
 
Barbara De Franceschi

 

Hwadu Attempt 1
 
Away, mazed truth! Lo, conundrum.
 
Helen Park

 

Wisconsin Farm Corn Maze
 
The Fox and the Grapes theme looms over me.
This equinox is no longer in Libra but Virgo.
 
David Mathews

 

I Confide in Jo March about My Divorce
 
I think how lucky I am that so few of my looming
pasts are real, that I can move forward through
the maze and just keep going.
 
Jennifer Finstrom