LANGUAGE EMBRACES TRUTH-TELLER

Art poetry

and childhood

were chased

out of her music

when her

stepfather married

her mother,

an abusive child

who belt-strapped

the man

and made

roulette play

Russian mother

with a gun.

She left the age

at house sixteen

Initially leaned

toward

visual shadows

but sunk

into arts,

painting, photo,

once again

when a man

became pregnant

like her

birth father

and she

couldn't marry

a job

My abandoned

dreams could

hear me

making a racket

My memoir wrote

in my soul

Then a show

watching one night

a shaman in

my story-box (TV)

calls people

to help chants

and dance

The spirit

of it was

me coming

to poetry

A telephone

said to

an interview

The artist

can be

difficult of

a role

Source: Edmonton Journal (because there is no Sunday edition, used Saturday's again), April 19, 2014: Arts & Life, Section D3, Article - re Edmonton Poetry Festival guest poet, Joy Harjo, "Truth-Teller embraces language" - used 3 or 4 paragraphs

SUNDAY, APRIL 20: LESCUREAN

PERMUTATION [PLAIN]

Select a newspaper article or passage from a newspaper article as

your source text. Switch the first noun with the second noun, the

third noun with the fourth noun, and so on until you’ve reached

the end of your text.

HOMOCONSONANTISM

Even though I came at this from several angles, I never really came up

with anything very satisfactory so finally went with the first thing I had, awkward as it is...not my favourite, I'm afraid.

Original statement: I guess the worst part was I liked it. (a quote by Johnny Depp about his character in the movie Transcendence) - sourced from the Edmonton Journal, Friday April 18, 2014, Section C, Movies and books.

Oulipost poem from the source text:

O aged ass

thy wurst port

west o' lucky

duet

FRIDAY, APRIL 18: HOMOCONSONANTISM

Choose a sentence or short passage from your newspaper to

complete a homoconsonantism. In this form, the sequence of

consonants in a source text is kept, while all its vowels are

replaced. For example:

ORIGINAL: To be or not to be: that is the question.

CONSONANTS ONLY: T b r n t t b t t s t h q s t n

FINAL PRODUCT: As burnt tibia: it heats the aqueous tone.

DEATH IN A BLUE AND WHITE SPLIT-LEVEL

Foltinek was really tired when he called Segura

—his close friend, and urged him to come to his party—

Inside the blue and white split-level home

Marking the last day of classes, high spirited students

were celebrating, and Segura wanted Foltinek, his friend

to come over and party to the great music...

The kids in the house had bonded over their love of music

With his religious studies, love of cars, and ska, especially Jordan Segura

No wonder he tried to persuade Foltinek, his  best friend

To come celebrate, not realizing that to stay away from the party

Would leave Foltinek, one of the fortunate few students

Safe and sound, and still alive, in his own home

Three young adults were dead inside Segura's home

Said a neighbour, "It's not like there was loud music."

And they all got together all the time, these students

A blood moon from a rare lunar eclipse was set to break over Segura's

And he was in really good mood at his end of term party

And except for Foltinek, surrounded by all his friends.

Like Foltinek, the killer, invited to the party, was one of the friends

Came there directly from work, without going home

His parents apparently were concerned about him the night of the party

There still reportedly wasn't any noise, no loud music

One hour later, fatally stabbed, a victim -- one of five -- Segura

Foltinek, grown worried, appeared outside the house to wait, one of the students.

Bermuda Shorts Day festivities, a tradition where students

dress up to mark the end of term, gather with friends

as they had done here at the house of Jordan Segura

A rental that will forever more be known as "that murder home"

Where the kids who used to get together and bond over a love of music

met to celebrate and were slaughtered at a most gruesome party.

What sad beleaguered party-goers, students all, dance solemnly to death music

Friends by their side always, going to that final home, led by host Jordan Segura

Source: Edmonton Journal - Saturday April 19, 2014 - City and Region - A10 - entitled "These were good kids, in a safe place, but then..." (This was taken from a two page spread, coverage of Calgary's worst mass murder in history when alleged killer, U of C student, 22 year old, Matthew de Grood, went to a house party to which he was invited, and stabbed to death five other U of C students, celebrating the end of year, before exams were to start next week. So far it appears to be an unprovoked and motiveless crime and Matthew's parents are as crushed and traumatized as any. It is a most disturbing case. The five other students are: Joshua Hunter, Lawrence Hong, Kaitlin Perras, Zackariah Rathwell and the one mentioned in the poem, Jordan Segura.)

SATURDAY, APRIL 19: SESTINA

This will be one of your most challenging Oulipost prompts! A

sestina is a poetic form of six six-line stanzas. The end-words of

the lines of each stanza repeat those of the first, but in a differing

order that in each successive stanza follows the permutation:

615243. The entire sequence of end words is thus: 123456;

615243; 364125; 532614; 451362; 246531. All words and phrases

must be sourced from your newspaper text.

FAREWELL TO JIM FLAHERTY

More than 1,000 mourners

the political elite

green scarves at their necks

Source: Edmonton Journal - Thursday April 17, 2014 - from the section, "News and Opinion", article, "Farewell to Jim Flaherty" - taking some liberties with the haiku form; instead of the typical 5 7 5, I've gone and done a 7 5 7 since these lines fairly leapt off the page at me and I really didn't see myself doing any better.

  

THURSDAY, APRIL 17: HAIKUISATION

The haiku is a Japanese poetic form whose most obvious feature

is the division of its 17 syllables into lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables.

Haikuisation has sometimes been used by Oulipians to indicate

the reduction of verses of normal length to lines of haiku-like

brevity. Select three sentences from a single newspaper article

and “haiku” them.

MUSIC FOLLOWS

For the current about to—

says title holder—

Handling album name,

Music or not --

of emotional ones

Is ready to promote

an outdoor collaboration

on this year

A new email appears

to heart and soul

premiering about

two southeast

of the front-man

follows...

With the off-road

and

heavy chop

After a high-profile

result,

The one who is off

is pieces,

is one of the—Brilliant.

Music is production

says the player.

Source: Edmonton Journal - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - Arts and Life: only used the first two paragraphs of all the articles.

AC/DC to Retire? - main article for replacing nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Downie, Sadies rise with Conquering Sun - used for noun replacements.

Pop star's dad is Unusually Thicke - used for verb replacements.

Music, camping and muddy motorsports - used for adjective replacements.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16: CHIMERA

The chimera of Homeric legend – lion’s head, goat’s body,

treacherous serpent’s tail – has a less forbidding Oulipian

counterpart. It is engendered as follows. Having chosen a

newspaper article or other text for treatment, remove its nouns,

verbs and adjectives. Replace the nouns with those taken in order

from a different work, the verbs with those from a second work,

the adjectives with those from a third.

WE ARE AS WE ARE

*


29
is no warriors' icon
We can even causes
in 2010
No-one can earn
or even mime
runs
In a movie
50 is a resource,
more-over an ass,
a save in a can
Use men,
raise women's
cans.lipost
71
can cause me
a move.
Never on our
own.
Some on it.

A new room
receives more
now in
more
current
a mix
as is
seen.

TUESDAY, APRIL 15: PRISONER’S
CONSTRAINT
Imagine a prisoner whose supply of paper is restricted. To put it
to fullest use, he will maximize his space by avoiding any letter
extending above or below the line (b, d,f,g,h,j,k,l,p,q,t and y) and
use only a,c,e,m,n,o,r,s,u,v,w,x and z. Compose a poem using only
words that can be made from these letters AND which you
source from your newspaper text.
Source Material: Edmonton Journal - Tuesday April 15, 2014 - Art & Entertainment Section - several articles including: "Edward Norton puts the fun into fundraising", "Canyon won't seek federal office" and Snap Reviews of new releases.

*artwork is by kelly brown

CROSBY GOT HEART, SHOULD GET HART

Run your rank

Ride your file

The game's located

on the players'.

On a quiet 70%

just 1.5 of them

from scribble:

Crosby.

This Sidney offers

a 1560 square foot

Crosby with

three penguins

two captains,

a gourmet one,

all new award

and league.

2005 square

seasons

Max out

Crosby

with a 16 foot

drive through

concussion and

in-floor issues.

Pittsburgh with

games and two trophies.

Country seasons,

City pictures.

MONDAY, APRIL 14: COLUMN INCHES

Refer to the advertising section or the classifieds in your source

newspaper. Create a poem by replacing all of the nouns in your

chosen ad segment or classified listing with nouns from one article

in the same newspaper. You may use multiple ads/classifieds,

presented in the order of your choosing.

Source: Edmonton Journal - Monday April 14, 2014 - took a real-estate ad and changed as many nouns as possible using the first two paragraphs from a sports article in the same edition. The two pieces are re-typed below. I took some liberties when writing the poem; left out some awkward numbers from the real-estate ad, made plurals out of singulars to make the poem flow...I've heard Ouliposts are supposed to be about fun, so today, I had some! (Should probably mention, the title is all mine...a plug for Crosby to win the trophy!)

97 Sherwood Park 922459 T53 Rd. 1560 sq. ft. RUN YOUR BUSINESS - RIDE YOUR HORSE! Property is located on 6.71 acreages on a quiet road just 1.5 km from Sherwood Park. This property offers a 1560 sq.ft. bungalow with three bedrooms, two baths, gourmet kitchen, all new appliances and Hardware floors, a 2400 sq. ft. MAX OUT SHOP with 16 ft. drive through doors, infloor heating, bathroom with shower and two offices. Country living. City convenience. $895,000

Captain kept Penguins afloat this season: Ask the NHL rank-and-file to vote on the game's best player, and I'd say 70 per cent of them would scribble C-R-O-S-B-Y.

     But Sidney Crosby, the superstar Pittsburgh Penguins captain, has one only one most-valuable player award and he's been in the league since 2005. 

      How can that be?You can throw out two seasons when Crosby had his concussion issues in Pittsburgh and only played 21 and 41 games, but that's still only one Hart Trophy in the other six seasons. Alex Ovechkin has three MVPs and Crosby has one. There's something wrong with this picture.

TO MY MOST REMARKABLE ONE

A note to my most remarkable one

Tomorrow ends my time on earth alone

We join together for indeed all time

Start married life, our years sublime

Before family, mates, spirits too              

I'll promise my heart to thee

There's nowt on the planet we won't do

When you walk eternally with me

So  my troth,

      my wife,

          my life.

Source: The Boston Globe, April 13, 2014 - announcing the marriage of Elizabeth Griffin Crowley and Benjamin Franklin Sprayregen who married on April 6.2014 (I don't know about others but I found it extremely hard to find a newspaper that publishes wedding announcements...the Globe was about my 20th attempt. However, I thought this couple provided excellent names for the poem...only left out 5 letters of the alphabet!)

SUNDAY, APRIL 13: EPITHALAMIUM

An Oulipian epithalamium, or marriage song, is one composed

exclusively with the letters of the names of bride and groom

(bride and bride, groom and groom, etc). Visit the engagement or

wedding announcements section of your newspaper and select a

couple. Write a poem using only words that can be made with the

letters in their name. You may choose to use first names only if

you prefer anonymity or full names if you’re desperate for more

letters.

DEATHLY MASH-UP

She came to Canada from the Netherlands as a war bride

Raised cattle, cats, dogs, horses, gardened, and enjoyed life

Liked to say, "You are only as good as the day you are here"

Additionally,  owned a grocery store and was also a volunteer

She met her 2nd love on a blind date; they were wed 64 years

Said sometimes memories roll out of my eyes, end up tears

After a lengthy battle operating the carding machine

She indulged her passion for enjoying ice cream

Spent more than 43 years in the newspaper business

Before she passed away after a very brief illness

SATURDAY, APRIL 12: SONNET

Write a sonnet sourced from lines found in newspaper articles.

You may choose your own sonnet type ( Examples here:

http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm) and should feel free to be

creative with the rules. One known Oulipo variation is “sonnets

of variable length,” in which one must compose a sonnet in which

the lines are either as short as possible or as long as possible.

Source: Edmonton Journal - Saturday April 12.2014 - Obituaries - basic sonnet with rhyming couplets, all taken from the Obituary section of the paper and very thoroughly mashed up. Very much cut and paste. I have taken great liberties here so that I would end up with rhymes and I changed the gender so that all of them would be female for the continuity of the poem.

DANNY'S MANTRA and BORN OF NO GOOD

Danny's mantra lacks

class  and was a part

Danny has a past

Danny can slap

and that's what

Danny's pasts

Danny has flaws

Danny had parts

Danny was at class

Danny was fast

Source: Edmonton Journal, Friday April 11, 2014 - Books, "A swimmer's dreams go adrift" - a review of Barracuda-written by Christos Tsiolkas and reviewed by Monique Polak...using only the vowel,  "a".

Born of nobody good

told from story

of von Gottorp

to book of Toronto

off of book of Moscow

only two months

two plots

from old

to now

How do cost do?

Who knows?

Source: Edmonton Journal, Friday April 11, 2014 - Books, "Historical soap opera deserves a second look" - an interview/review of Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak by Ruth Myles...using only the vowel "o".

FRIDAY, APRIL 11: UNIVOCALISM

A univocalic text is one written with a single vowel. It is

consequently a lipogram in all the other vowels. If he had been

univocally minded, Hamlet might have exclaimed, “Be? Never be?

Perplexed quest: seek the secret!” All words used must be

sourced from your newspaper.

I, if

I,

if

the

well

sites

bright

skating

shopping

prominent

everything

information

professional

self-confident

acknowledges

attractions

businesses

festivals

somebody

explore

before

prove

them

no

o

Source: Edmonton Journal, Thursday, April 10, 2014 - section City and Region,A5, article from commentary "Showcasing a city come of age" by Paula Simons (words were taken in order of size: 1 letter to 12 letters, then back down: 12 letters to 1 letter, throughout the article.)

THURSDAY, APRIL 10: SNOWBALL

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.

DEFEAT WORTH LAUDING

A labour scenario right out of Monty Python

left out as its fate is debated by diplomats

Tensions sweep cities in eastern regions

Radicals take hostages hostile to rule

from capital

How do nicotine and caffeine fit into all this--

Which protein are we looking at -- immunity to

pseudo-science-- back to the drawing-board

What's the next step; what's the catch

Battle for control, good balance in views

Relief over views? Hardly

All wet on this one

Unions insist everything's fine with public sector

Dogged determination, plenty of old boys' clubs

Plans for four way talk, threatens additional sanctions

Education reforms nonsense

Harassment of teacher continued

Shell game with funding,

coup has power, plus,

Living in the right place to survive a zombie apocalypse

Wednesday, April 9 - Headlines (variation of Jean Queval's "Cent Ons")

Compose a poem whose body is sourced from article headlines in your newspaper.

Source: Edmonton Journal - Wed.Apr.9.2014 - headlines from almost all sections throughout the paper, various articles, scrambled by me - pretty thoroughly.

ENTRAILS OVERLAIN

*



a tamer snake

moves violet, trails

terminal ailments

mistaken stalkier toenails

almost tore

slim snot

venom means reams

an omen amok

evils a-line

TUESDAY, APRIL 8: BEAUTIFUL INLAW

(BEAU PRESENT)

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

(http://www.scrabblefinder.com/).

Source: Edmonton Journal - Tuesday April 8, 2014 - City and Region, Article by Shelia Pratt, entitled "Teacher tells hearing of years of harassment" ... it was pretty hard to resist selecting this name (the name of the teacher involved actually) for the number of letters it offered up: Vienna Malko-Monterrosa

*snake-eye by Brenda York

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? I DON'T THINK SO

The nineteenth memorialist,

the theatrical one

with itchy sox

and the sailfish, recessed

her inactive, pointless butcher

Market-price secretin

on the altarpiece

Intended for wash-day?

Outbound presumable

for revivalism, not

the toadstool

On the off-chance

He, in the weskit,

—with a broach—

also theatrical,

slips down the declivity

unable to fay,

his to inactivate

his abacus = exponent

his booking warrants

putrefaction or

a cent for a stiff

vertebrate

MONDAY, APRIL 7: N + 7

You’ll want a dictionary for this one! Select a passage from one of

your newspaper articles. Replace each noun the passage with the

seventh noun following it in the dictionary. A hard-copy dictionary

will make the exercise more varied and fun; however, you can

also use the online N+7 generator to create your text

(http://www.spoonbill.org/n+7/).

Source text: Edmonton Journal: Monday April 7.2014, Classified, Article by Peter Foster, "New Book reveals Cold War battle over "Zhivago Affair" (Below is the sentence I used for word sources. I will say that I didn't count proper nouns in my dictionary as part of my "7" count and when I did the poem, I switched up the order. I hope that's in keeping with the challenge. I really didn't understand this one fully and am just going by what others have posted... (Oh good gravy, I just realized I made the challenge ten times harder than it needed to be...I missed the part about replace only the nouns...I replaced every word in the freakin' sentence! No wonder my poem reads like the surrealist's dream/nightmare. Maybe I'll try another. Maybe.)

In a nine-point memo marked, secret but recently declassifed, British intelligence said it was, "in favour of exploiting the book, " warning that Soviet censors were already putting pressure on Pasternak to put out  a "revised" version".

  

SOME DETAILS DISCERNED

SOME DETAILS DISCERNED

Ladies and Gentlemen, 
your home opener in this town
is usually a savage sort of ceremony
Whether the mayor is in the building or not...
But last season felt different

Dome or no dome, the sky was the limit
The season was a crater, of course
But, as the poet's wrote, 
there's always next year...

And so we come to this team 
and what it can be.
Dustin McCowan started 
the home opener Friday 
against the Yankees; 
That alone was incredible

Last season his solid turn 
as a reliever was accompanied
by the terror that his shoulder 
could blow at any moment
His stuff has always been electric 
But—every pitch will be 
accompanied by a prayer
He is one hell of a roulette wheel 
to count on

If this team ultimately wins, 
it will be a wonderful surprise


SUNDAY, APRIL 6: BLANK VERSE AMIDST
THE PROSE
Compose a poem using unintentional lines of iambic pentameter
found in your newspaper.
Source Material: Edmonton Journal - again Saturday (as they have no Sunday edition) April 5, 2014, the Sports section, Commentary by Bruce Arthur entitled "Jays will have to win with what they've got" (sub-titled: Rogers seem to have club back on budget)

SO-CALLED SEPARATISM

*

splattered sense

separatism suddenly

showed support

sovereignty...

since; signs --

some shot

spirit same

surroundings stunningly

snow-covered

superheroes storybook

streets spring single

store small sale

stares, shyness

so-called

single-spaced

single stoning

still spectrum

strategy: share

security

something,

sovereignist speculate,

say, small suite staffed

speak sixtysomething

students school 
separation

sure, separation

someone suspends

so—status, sick; shrug

secular same support

seats see

some students

suggesting

students swimming

sovereigntist [sic] saw,

she says,

she's slow, suffering

shoulder small...

seen statistics

settled

speakers set

SATURDAY, APRIL 5: 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.

Oulipost #5 - source, Edmonton Journal, Sat. April 5.2014, from the Insight Section, Article: Commentary by Michael Den Tandt - entitled "Call in the undertaker: Quebec separatism is dead" (used the article in its entirety - approx. a page and a half, including quotes and picture captions, excluding most proper nouns and names). Words are used in the order they appear in the paper, except for title which was "lifted" from resulting poem. One deviation near the end, fourth line of poem from the end, left out pronoun "she" for the poem's sake. Also, most punctuation was added or omitted at the poet's discretion.  Admit that picking "s" was a "soft" choice for a tautogram but liked the result enough to keep it. May try something more difficult if time permits. (Aside - sovereigntist is likely a typo, or spelling mistake, but it is how it appears in the article, so I left it in the poem; sovereignty is an actual word so it's possible that sovereigntist could be one also and I just haven't been able to find it yet.)

*artwork - Rene Magritte - Homesickness