For a while, we have had magnetic poetry on the side of our refridgerator. For those of you unfamiliar with magnetic poetry, it is a kit that consists of various words and letter combinations printed on small magnetic strips, with one word (say, "and", "miasma", "beauty" or the like) or one letter combination ("ed", "es", etc.) on each strip. You take the words and can endlessly rearrange them on the fridge to make poems, ditties, limericks, songs, or what-have-you. The neat thing about this form of creative play is that, if you limit yourself to the words on the side of the refridgerator, because there is a limited supply of words, you are forced to consider word choice very carefully, and to realize that the art of writing poetry is difficult indeed.

Here are some of the poems that have been assembled on our fridge (and by the way, I make no pretense that these are masterpieces. If you enjoy them, great. If not, well, don't worry -- I'm keeping my day job).

Summer Impression

Drunk on sea mist
Break the black glass water
Swim deep
from light
. to
. shadow
lazy blue
. to
. green
be mad
. sweet
. bold
. nude
. young
. electric
. glorious.

Metaphor

Imagine peach.
Think petal pink.
Throw out
winter's shadow.
Approach
life deliriously,
full and open
as a ship
in the wind
after a bitter storm.

Untitled

Wood smoke shimmer
purple
then white
capture the rhythm
of the cool forest whisper
paint the luscious black sky
with languid red strokes
wild under a white moon

Surreal Symphony

A smear of instrumental music
. is like
a passionate scream
or paint on a raw canvas
mad
but wanting harmony.