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 parallel, tide, knot, and lantern.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are sliver, sidewalk, vanish, and portent.

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

Atmosphere
 
black penny loafers have been known to click on marble staircases
 
Hannah Lanier

 

Eclipse Morning
 
today the moon will cover the sun, block brilliance
the way an illness might clot a woman's thoughts
 
Judy Kaber

 

Doing Laundry at a Women's Shelter
 
Her son asks if Green Lantern
is Irish
 
David Mathews and Sharon Mathews

 

Two Word Poems
 
Some kinds of people think
that everyone wants what they want.
 
Greta Bolger

 

Other Me Can Sing
 
There is a road parallel to my own,
where other me walks along the dark woods between us.
 
Michael A. Van Kerckhove

 

For the Swimming Girls
 
We were goggles forgotten at home, eyes forced open underwater
diving for the lantern-bright flash of a sinking coin, the whites gone bloodshot
when we checked in the locker room mirror.
 
Elizabeth Kerper

 

The Ride
 
time, that last pesky knot that never comes undone
I'll slip right open with just a wide smile on the long wave
 
Don Pomerantz

 

I Confide in Jane Eyre about My Divorce
 
it no longer matters
if we wear our hair up or down
 
Jennifer Finstrom