QUILLFYRE’S #OULIPOST 10 SNOWBALL

Posted on April 10, 2014 by quillfyre

This procedure requires the first word of a text to have only one letter, the second two, the third three, and so on as far as resourcefulness and inspiration allow. The first word of a snowball is normally a vowel: in English, a I or O.

From your newspaper, select a starting vowel and then continue adding words of increasing length from the same source article or passage. Challenge yourself further by only using words in order as you encounter them in the text.

Here’s what I came up with, bending the punctuation a bit to remove hyphens and add a possessive. I also put only one word per line, while still having the words increment one letter at a time/per line.

Spring Arrivals

A
Do!

The
ewes’
lambs,
dozens,
newborn
triplets.

Honeymoon
offthegrid,
university
cheesemakers
Experimenting,
wobbly-legged.

CAS 4/10/14

English: Sheep and lambs in Switzerland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SOURCE:

Robin, Laura Arrival of the lambs at Milkhouse Farm and Dairy Apr 10, 2014 print edition, Ottawa Citizen in Food & Drink

QUILLFYRE’S #OULIPOST 9 HEADLINES

Posted on April 9, 2014 by quillfyre

Today’s constraint is a variation of Jean Queval’s “Cent Ons”.

The instructions are quite simple: Compose a poem whose body is sourced from article headlines in your newspaper.

I used the print edition of this morning’s paper, putting together a list of headlines, moving from section to section, but as I went, already phrases were waving little flags “Pick me! Pick me!” so that by the time I was finished the list, I had highlighted more than enough to create my poem.

Even in my choice of subject, I was already outside the box, which was wonderful, although I never imagined ever writing a poem about this:

Zeroing in, a Zombie Sonnet

Tensions sweep eastern cities.
The politics of fear in Southern Ontario’s
undead playground, a bloody rivalry Cold War,
a delusion of safety zones.

Inuit seal hunt zombie MPs.
Exciting first-round matchups:
Trailer Park Boys duel Ford’s*
shifting tectonic plates.

Body parts grown by UK researchers
attract diplomats, tit-for-tat frantic farce
on a cold April day at the centre of the campaign
to end death. Humane Society’s ok with it.

Lest we forget,
it’s all about the tulips.

Carol A. Stephen,

April 9, 2014

*Ford’s refers of course to Toronto’s notorious Rob Ford.

English: Zombies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SOURCE: OTTAWA CITIZEN, PRINT EDITION, APRIL 9, 2014

Headlines used:

Lest We Forget Vimy Ridge
Province’s shifting tectonic plates
Death of separatism? It’s a delusion
Arrest made in stabbing death
Russia, Canada duel with diplomats
Zeroing in on the zombie safety zones
Southern Ontario undead playground, tongue-in-cheek study says
Humane Society ok with Inuit seal hunt
Tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions not common since Cold War ended
Ben Johnson, Trailer Park Boy joins Ford’s re-election campaign
Body parts grown by UK researchers at centre of campaign to attract investment
Tensions sweep eastern cities
Plenty of potentially exciting first-round matchups
The politics of fear
On a cold April day
Traditional playoff pairing led to a bloody rivalry
It’s all about the tulips
Actors deliver a frantic farce

If you want to read more about Oulipo, click on this link to read Into the Maze: Oulipo at Poets. org, the Academy of American Poets website.

If you wish to read poems from other Ouliposters, you will find them here: http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/oulipost-9-headlines-variation-of-jean-quevals-cent-ons/#comment-1787

QUILLFYRE’S #OULIPOST 8 BEAU PRESENT

Posted on April 8, 2014 by quillfyre

This constraint is also known as Beautiful Inlaw.

Select a name from one of your newspaper articles, famous or not. Compose a poem using only words that can be made from the letters in that person’s name. For example, if you selected “John Travolta,” you may only use words that can be made from the letters A, J, H, L, N, O, R, T and V.

The use of web-based tools is highly encouraged to help uncover different words that can be made from your letters of choice. One tool you might consider is the Scrabble Word Finder.

Having struggled earlier on with trying to lipogram words into a poem without using any vowel but U, my eye was caught immediately by a name of the sports page, Craig Anderson, who plays goal for the Ottawa Senators. However, two articles later I still ended up with a very short poem. So many nice words that wanted a “T” or a “G”. I wasn’t left with very many “meaty” words, due to the constraint of selecting from the newspaper, of course. Few of the wonderful words Scrabble Word Finder provided were included. I used Doug Luman’s lipogram generator, as I have had problems with the various tools including his beau present, but the lipogram provided me with a usable base, all I had to do was eliminate the straggler words that didn’t fit my selected letters.

English: Spartacat, official mascot of the Ottawa Senators. Note that the picture has been cropped from original. Français : Spartacat, macotte officielle des Sénateurs d’Ottawa. L’image a été recadrée à partir de l’originale (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is the list of words I was able to use:

Craig car Canadian came ion can can can Consider can rear road round Red Red received received remain rain right rear road round Red Red received received rain a and and and and and an a and a and a a and a and a and and a and As a and a a and and are a a a a and a and and a and and and and and an a and a and a a and a and a and and a and As a and a a and and are a a a a and a and and and in in In in in is is in I is I I I is I ice in in in a and and and and and an a and a and a a and a and a need no no need no do do do one one end rear road Red Red received received rear road round Red Red received received season see season so so season second season said season said season said season s ions said ion season says s season season said on order on on need no need no no

second article: is son, a in an in in and and son, red and
s is a as in 1,000 in a 27 in residence
’s is and noses as and 35 cries. One . dance, a 21-

The resulting poem:

Second Season Canadian Can-Can

Consider Canadian second season rain
round craigs, on rear roads.

Ice can remain in residence
on 1000 red noses,

in 35 cries,
and as one dance.

Carol A. Stephen
April 8, 2014

SOURCES:

Warren, Ken, Anderson tries to look ahead, not back at the lost season Ottawa Citizen, April 8, 2014, (B1)
Rayner, Gordon, Prince George begins his royal duty in New Zealand, Ottawa Citizen April 8 print edition (A6 from UK Telegraph story)

QUILLFYRE’S #OULIPOST 5 TAUTOGRAM

Posted on April 5, 2014 by quillfyre

Today’s prompt is a short one, although not without its own measure of complexity!

TAUTOGRAM:

Compose a poem whose words — or at least the principal ones — all begin with the same letter. The words must be sourced from your newspaper.

I again decided to split my poem, using 5 letters, one per stanza, to create a poem built of 5 tautograms. The title? Black Sabbath will appear in Ottawa on April 13, 2014, which just happens to be my birthday.

BLACK SABBATH BIRTHDAY BASH

Birmingham band, British born Breed:
Butler, Brad, Bill. Broke boys,
bruises, bumps beers.
Black beyond big
built on British Beatles blues
and beyond.

One original, Ozzy Osbourne.
Often out,
only one of Original,
often out.

Surprising success.
Singer stuff started:
stage show, something simpler
strings, soul, slang.
Stones style.
Strangled, smashed stage so surprising.

Police, pubs, parties,
pot, paranoid,
Play, playing, played.

Rare rockers reunited,
rhythm, rock revived,
realize respect.

Black Sabbath on stage at Schleyerhalle in Stuttgart, Germany. “Reunion Tour”. From left to right: Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source:

Robb, Peter Black Sabbath keeps it simple, Ottawa Citizen print edition Apr. 5, 2014 (F1, F4)

And much thanks to the Oulipost Project and Found Poetry Review’s #Doug Luman, for his text tools which help so much to make these efforts possible .