This week we imposed restrictions (the handcuffs) on our writing. Known in writing circles as a lipogram, this is where a letter is ruled out of use and to make things challenging ours was the letter 'e'. The last two sentences had 17 e's so you can imagine some trepidation within our group. It's incredible to think that in 1939 Ernest Wright wrote a 50,000 word novel without a single e! How hard can it be? Our second lipogram-like challenge was to 'flatten the dictionary', in other words write a poem with no tall letters - that's b, d, f, h, k, l, t. None of this was easy but we did it and some great work ensued. The first poem below is the no-e number and the next two are the flattened poems.
Hang with human
You saw a human
That is a girl
You walk up towards
To talk to this girl
It's amazing how the girl and you click so fast
You both got a lot in common
All day you hang out
At night
In your room
You think
What a fun day you had
Starting in that room
Spotting that human
exposure
privacy, none
open, exposure
anger rage pain
worse case scenario
so many nosey eyes
see me
exposure
privacy gone
- Jenn
a new way
a new way
viewing no anger
owning peace in you
a mirror in me
seeing a new overview
unseen in our now
a vigor as never
was in our scene
- S B P Davis
