Hello poets & friends Björn here inviting you to play with limitations in poetry.
I think one of the things that has developed myself as a poet is to create rules or limitations on how we write. This is often what makes me search for alternatives to formulate myself (yes I use the thesaurus a lot).
I am not saying this gives us the best possible poem (I think not) but it stretches our writing into other domains such as sound or rhythm.
Today I want to introduce you to a poetic form (or set of rules) created by Canadian Poet Christian Bök known for his experimental work.
In his poem Vowels from his poetry book Eunoia which is written as “an anagrammatic text, permuting the fixed array of letters found in the title”
This means that in the poem only words that are a permutation of the letters in the title can be used in the poem; e.g. Wolves, loveless and vessels.
So for the challenge I want you to:
- Select a title of one word containing not more than 3 vowels and 4 consonants.
- Try to find as many words that are using only the letter in the title
- Combine this into a poem of your own
- Do not use any punctuation in the poem
When you are ready post your poem to your blog, link up using a direct link to your poem to Mr. Linky below.
As always I am very happy if you leave a comment below and even more importantly visit and read other poets. Reading and being read are closely connected.
I hope you have fun with this
dVerse 
Hello friends, this was not as easy as I thought, but I hope you try it. If you need anything for your strenght, the bar is fully stocked with all kind of drinks, and I have some homemade pan-pizza if you feel a bit peckish.
Hi Bjorn. What a challenging prompt that I had to google words, smiles. It is cold today, so a home made pizza with tea would be lovely. Thanks for introducing us to this puzzle-crazy form.
I used Google as well… I could actually get all the words out of a word (used for scrabble)
Oh Björn, you are so right – it wasn’t easy. I kept wanting it to make sense and when I’d written my poem I was disappointed with it. I don’t usually drink, but I think I need an elderflower gin!
Elderflower Gin, you are in luck, I made some this last summer (I do have some hombrewed elderflower mead as well)… it was fun, and I think with the right selected word to start with it can become interesting.
The only spirit I can drink.
What are the odds, that Kim and I chose the same word? Wow!
I know… I was really surprised.
I can recommend using this site https://wordfinder.yourdictionary.com/words-with-the-letter/ to help you find words in words.
I’m cogitating on this one! Challenging is hardly the word: how about mind-bending? And it’s driving me to drink and … philosophy! For the former, I’ll join those partaking some elderflower mead, if you can spare me a mug; for the latter …. Hmmm.🤔
Ha… I do recommend using one of the scrabbletools you can find on line… select a good word then enter it a couple of times in the tool and you will have a good start.
But mead coming up…
Merci! Also for the tips! And please direct the muses my way as well. Cheers!
Keep a bottle of champagne on ice for me please … I will want it .. if and when … I conquer this challenge.
Wondering if the title is seven letters long? I see others have used longer titles. I am struggling.
Hello Bjorn and All. Had dream group today and so am here way late. I like the way Grace calls it puzzle crazy as that’s what it felt like putting mine together. I love puzzles and had a blast doing it. Bjorn, pan pizza sounds perfect if there is any left, please.
It does take some effort trying to find all those words… but once you have the list is a nice task. The fact that you limit the number of sound in the poem makes an interesting sound effect as well
Good prompt!
This might be a bit too restrictive. It’s all about finding the right word. I’ll go with my favorite Dick Van Dyke show quote, about my entry: “It seems vague, but in reality it’s meaningless”
I think it is possible to do, with the right word it can actually be a lot of meaning in it.
In the end I think I managed it. It might be interesting to try a version of this prompt using a selected sentence (or choose the first line of some poem and then use only the letters or even the words in that line)
Well that’s a proper brainteaser Björn! I am now so tired I will retire to bed and do the rounds on Mr Linky in the morning – Goodnight all…
Ha… just try to find as many word as possible from one word… a bit like scrabbles but you can duplicate any letter.
I love this idea, what a fun challenge! A great prompt Bjorn!!
Thank you… it was fun, but harder than I first thought.
Bjorn, this is an interesting challenge. Let me see what I can create. A glass of Merlot would be delightful.
We have a great selection of Merlot… so I hope you found one of your liking.
Hi Bjorn, thank you for hosting today. I’m going to blame this on the pain medication and taking following my oral surgery but I don’t understand where this prompt is trying to take me up. I am lost so I’m gonna continue to try to wrap my head around it but right now I’m just Disconnected from the prompt but I’ll work on it. Thank you for providing it. I’m sure somewhere locked in the mystery that I’m going through. I’ll find it.
OK I figured it out. I had made this way too complicated in my brain.
It is a bit like playing scrabbles actually
Hope my nonsense makes some sense. 🙂✌🏼🫶🏼
I liked it but when I came to your blog the comments were closed.
This is a tough one!
Glad I could provide a true challenge…
😀😀
You can check out a few of the examples that is already written…. maybe for inspiration.
Yes, I’m doing that. Thanks for the guidance!
A stiff gin at breakfast here for me!! Well I have come up with a mishmash – with Vowels – allowing loveless, I am assuming we can double up use of some letters….. which I have done, so if not allowed I have bent the rules…sorry …. wow what a challenge…
Suzanne
Stiff gin for breakfast… ok that means the prompt was challenging 🙂
It was 😂
This is fascinating (addictive) Bjorn – thank you. A whiskey would be good after the word slog. 🙂
On the ace or straight up?
Straight up, yeah!
Coming up!
🙂
You really picked a humdinger this time for a prompt. I did give it a try. Hope it is what you are looking for. Thanks for hosting. I will have a ice cold glass of cider!
I think others have said it was hard, and I thought so too, but the result can be amazing…
:>)
Late to the pub…..what an interesting poetic form! I enjoyed working with it this morning. Will be back tomorrow morning to read.
I am going around looking at what others have done (even later)
I love anagrams and play puzzles online but this is a huge challenge😳
It is fun to play around with
Good Evening, poets! Mind-bending prompt, Bjorn! Thanks for the challenge!
How about a bottle of burgundy? 😉
A bottle sounds better than a glass after that exercise, Frank!
Wow, Bjorn and peeps, that was challenging! But sooooo fun. I had to read some of the others first to allow myself to be loose and whimsical.
I chose the word “peanut”, so I think I’ll have a few peanuts and maybe some pinot noir. By the way, “peeps” is a word you can make from the letters in “peanut”. 😁
Whoops, I meant “peanuts” was my word. Left out an important consonant there, I did!
A great addition… I started out with death for my word, but had to switch to deaths to make it work
That S really helps, doesn’t it? I also wished I had an E or an R. And I realize how much I rely on articles like “and” and “the”. It was nice to have to work around that and think differently. Great prompt!
Quite an interesting exercise!
🙂