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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Poetry Stretch Results - Lipogram

The challenge this week was to write a lipogram, a poem composed of words selected to avoid the use of one or more letters of the alphabet. Here are the results.
Stick Trick
by Kate Coombs of Book Aunt

Well hidden,
she slides
between trees.
The breeze
ripples her shirt.
Her knees
are skinned.
She is thin.
The girl grins,
creeping behind
the swing.
She'll greet
her friend
with a stick,
clever and light—
insect prickle,
shiver, tickle.
Then Kell will
shriek
with frightened
delight.

--Kate Coombs, 2010, all rights reserved


Amy Ludwig Vanderwater of Poem Farm shares a poem entitled Which Letter to Use?.


the tryst
by steven withrow of Crackles of Speech

steven, lesley meet.
deep-freeze eve.
they tremble, speechless,
free. wedded eyes
tell secrets. even
the evergreen trees
keep shy. temps
descend by twelve
degrees. yet every
step feels fever,
swelter. yes, every
breezy zephyr swells
sky's sweet glee!


Julie Larios of The Drift Record shares a poem entitled Body Knows.


Spring
by Elisabeth M. Priest of Endless Books

Listen --
wind in trees
billowing breeze
birds singing
chimes ringing

See --
violets, periwinkles,
showers, sprinkles,
green emerging,
blooms unfurling,
spiders spinning,
life is winning
I've been working on a number of different poems, but the pesky letters I was trying to leave out kept popping up. I should have had my thesaurus handy while working on this challenge! Anyway, here's one of my poems.
MISSING D-A-D

He's gone now
too long

My home of youth
now foreign
is no longer home

I miss his
blue eyes
smile
unwilling hugs

I miss his
strength
work ethic
stoicism

I miss his
quiet love

I still journey home
however impossible it is
to return

I miss him terribly
but nothing like my mom
It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll add it to the list.

8 comments:

  1. "I miss his
    quiet love"

    Oh, Tricia. I love this.

    A.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I attempted only using the vowel "o," and it was so HARD!

    STORY
    by Nicole Marie Schreiber

    Words
    shook
    from
    God.


    ON BOOKS
    by Nicole Marie Schreiber

    From hooks,
    to crooks,
    or books on nooks.

    From tombs,
    to zooms,
    or lost on moons.

    From Oz,
    to owls,
    or floppy fowls.

    From story to sold,
    from gloppy to gold,
    good books told,
    go forth bold.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nicole -- love these two pieces! Tough one this week, but I admire the results.

    Steven

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aaugh! I just noticed I left an "a" in my poem: "and"! Okay, I guess it could be "clever, light," but I'll have to think about that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm coming a bit late to the lipogram party, but wanted to thank you for the inspiration. I have a lipo-in-progress over at my site. What a good workout!
    http://marthacalderaro.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/lipogram-whats-that/

    ReplyDelete
  6. I should have mentioned, the lipograms here -- and your Poetry Makers series -- are wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Almost Unconditional
    by Liz Korba

    Always.
    I do.
    But I cannot say
    That word aloud.
    But I do.
    OK?
    And you?
    You too,
    Though you cannot say -
    But you always will…
    With a kiss?
    Hooray!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the praise, Steven! I appreciate it after such a sweat with this poetry stretch.

    And now, on to "shoes..." :-)

    ReplyDelete