Next Line, Please: This Week's Challenge [by David Lehman]

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Word golf has always been a reliable way to produce inspiration. This alternative to rhyme—in which the end-words spell out a progression from, say, “kiss” to “love,” moving one letter at a time—combines the pleasures of game-playing with the value of a constrictive form. I am not surprised that the game generated so much creative energy this week.

This came in from MQ:

MQ’s journey from “fuck” to “love” the last line flips the terms of line one:

The difference between love and fuck
Depends the most on fate and luck;
One’s the door, and one the lock.

You may meet many fit to lick
(Find the clit, avoid the lice),
But fewer those with whom to live
The distance between fuck and love

For other examples of notable entries, click here.

Last week Diana Ferraro wondered whether it would be a “heresy” to admit that she preferred some of “our” couplets to the one Wordsworth composed for “My Hearts Leaps Up.” Although it was not her intent, I’d like to use “Heresy” as our prompt for next week. I believe that many notes filed under that heading have a head start toward tapping the imagination. So … see what happens when you write a brief poem using “Heresy” as your title. If you would like to make things a bit more complicated, why not appropriate the style of either Emily Dickinson or Wallace Stevens, two notable heretics (though this option is strictly optional)? You submit your entries in the comments field.

We need to have closer deadlines henceforth, so please send in your entries by midnight on Saturday, March 4th. As always, my appreciation to all for sharing the inspiration.. . .

Comments

[Craig Wright]

(a slight correction, sorry)

Heresy

I found me Something To Believe --
then swiftly disbelieved it --
My hunger for ferocious Faith --
-- my faithlessness relieved it.

"There's no relief for Doubt in Faith!"
How confident I sounded! --
But Heresy haunts Doubt with Doubt --
Heresy's my faith -- Faith found it!