It’s Tuesday, and the dVerse Poets Pub is open with snacks and beverages from our well-stocked bar, as well as a selection of delicious poetry.  I’m Kim from writinginnorthnorfolk.com, your host for this week’s Poetics.

^{Image by David Travis on Unsplash}

Several months ago, I had an eye check-up and was prescribed new glasses. I wear varifocals or, as I call them, fairy vocals, and one of the tests they do when trying on a new prescription is reading from a laminated reading test card of different size fonts in sentences, such as text for posters, novels, text books and printed instructions, classified advertisements, etc. What I have always found fascinating are the sets of four words beneath each sentence, which seem to be random. I thought they would make a great poetics prompt, so I asked the optician for a copy.

Here are the sets of words:

nose – one – cause – even
were – crone – our – summer
name – use – means – arose
near – can – remove – sure
crow – verse – see – renew
assume – once- van – sum
aware – caves – sea – cream

Your challenge is to choose one or two sets of words and write a poem using them in the order in which they appear. If you’re feeling particularly inspired, you could use all of the words. You can write in any form you wish, but I imagine haiku or tanka would be interesting for one or two sets, and a range of forms for more.

I looked for poems created around random words, and the Poetry Foundation is a treasure trove of creativity.

For example, ‘Metamorphoses: The Female Into’ by Maggie Queeney plays with what seems to be random words; you can find it here.

‘Words for Worry’ by Li-Young Lee focuses on specific words; you can read it here.

‘Sink’ by Damien McClendon is interesting.

A small selection of haiku that could have been inspired by random words:

‘A Poppy Blooms’ by Katsushika Hokusai, a disciple of Basho
I write, erase, rewrite
Erase again, and then
A poppy blooms.

^{Image by Victoria Tronina on Unsplash}

‘In a Station of the Metro’ by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

^{Image by Ummano Dias on Unsplash}

‘The Taste of Rain’ by Jack Kerouac
The taste
Of rain
—Why kneel?

If you are new to dVerse and/or Poetics, here’s how to join in:

• Write a poem in response to the challenge;
• Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below;
• There you will find links to other poets, and more will join, so check back for their poems;
• Read and comment on other poets’ work – we all come here to have our poems appreciated;
• Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog;
• Comment and participate in our discussion below, if you like. We are a friendly bunch of poets.
• Have fun.
• And remember, Mr. Linky will remain open until 3pm EST on Thursday, 30th January 2025. You can, however, write a poem to the prompt and link it up to Open Link Night.