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 soggy, adagio, marble, and overwhelmed.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are unity, sunset, spoon, and moss.

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

Blue-eyed grass sees

she is lulled
by ovine eyes, drifting as they
chew in an easy adagio

Nancy K. Jentsch
 

Belonging

between the drought and the flood
you have taught your daughter
to love rivers

Madonna Holden
 

It's 3AM in Intensive Care and Someone is Dying

I hear only music when a pulse descends
adagio to larghissimo.

Nancy Sobanik
 

Listening to Hauser's Cello Play Albinoni at a St. Augustine Concert

twenty-two empty vodka bottles
under her bed, the house otherwise spotless

Betsy Lynch
 

My Husband Comes Back From The Dead

I reject before and after. I want do-overs.

Judy Kaber
 

Fix Me

The news is a soggy towel, a drawn-out misery

Christine Potter