Jan/Feb 2018 Poetry |
e c l e c t i c a
s p e c i a l f e a t u r e
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 sliver, sidewalk, vanish, and portent.
If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are current, elude, hidden, and lamp.
(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole poem)
New to School
I didn't tell them I was dreaming of being alone again.
Daryl Scroggins
Totality
Small creatures share my tread—
joint custodians of shale and twitching weeds.
Barbara De Franceschi
deceptive calm (Spotlight Runner-Up!)
shadows risk
shattering on slick
sidewalk
Nancy Jentsch
Persephone makes winter
The sidewalk where she
saw the lovers meet, all creations
glistened in carmine sweat.
Sheikha A.
Richard
no lack of grace
in him, yet wild as a moth fluttering
Judy Kaber
Chalk Lines
In those days, our world was made of plum trees
and tomato plants, chestnuts and crabapples
Greta Bolger
We Could Watch TV Like Always
now I wish
I had a sliver of a belief
in ghosts
Christopher Smith
Driving South on I-55
I haven't seen a sidewalk or unanswered question
in hours—left them back in Chicago.
David Mathews
I Confide in Lucrezia Borgia about My Divorce
Bored by my talk of mice
and the ways I'm not killing them, she vanishes
Jennifer Finstrom