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 sacred, passport, lion, and echo. Below are the resulting selected poems.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the four new words are suture, obnoxious, carton, and testament. Send your poem(s) to editors@eclectica.org by March 1, 2004.

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(Click on the title to view the whole poem!)

 

Two Word Poems
 
There is one memory he never speaks of:
the cry that echoes down the alley of his spine
and makes him foreign on his own five acres.  
 
Taylor Graham

 

After the Puma
 
The puma has seen
into the flaming heart of lightning  
 
J.P. Dancing Bear

 

Insomniac
 
Sleep does not speak your home language—
maps with pastel borders you cannot cross  
 
Jenna Rindo

 

Purification
 
This is how shamans follow
a ladder out of their bodies,
climb the drumbeat that looks
back at their echoing hearts.  
 
Jennifer Finstrom

 

Coming Home: A Cinquain
 
Echo
of the old hymns  
 
Deborah P. Kolodji