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 brawl, pallid, hollow, and oil. Below are the selected results.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are curtain, threaten, brittle, and blaze.

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

Two Word Poems
 
Eyes swim to half-space, where nothing is,
and nothing diverts
 
Ray Templeton

 

 

Tunneling
 
By seventeen, the schemer-
digger is intimate with her own
hot core and how to burrow to it
 
Greta Bolger

 

Accommodation
 
Even on our best days, the faces of old lovers
fall away, along with the reasons we loved them
 
Antonia Clark

 

Four Word Poems
 
What's that
in the depths of hedge?
Spotted Towhee.
 
Taylor Graham

 

Resurrection
 
What might be noticed first is the beauty
of the one and the vulgarity of the other.
 
Jennifer Finstrom