Lipogram قصص

This is a work in poetry using words that do not contain the letter "e".

This is the collection of my lipogram constraint poems, perhaps one of the hardest constraints to write using the English language. In a lipogram you omit at least one letter of the alphabet in your work, novels have been written with this constraint (See Ernest Vincent Wright's book "Gadsby"). I like to omit the e as it seems to be the most difficult letter to write a poem or story without.

The (disjointed) story of Homer's The Iliad, told in 26 paragraphs. In each paragraph, every word begins with the same letter, starting at A in paragraph 1, Z in paragraph 26. So sorta-kinda like a lipogram? Previously published in Zoetic Press's Nonbinary Review, Issue 4, "Bullfinch's Mythology". VERY inspired (and a bit derivative of) Christian Bök's Eunoia.

The folowing stories are tales from my childhood. Some are excerpts from my unpublished manuscript; Blood of our Children, and others are just short stories. The first story is a lipogram (removing all words with the letter "e"). You can see that in so doing the story becomes somewhat convoluted; clichés are twisted and phrasing is difficult (the story reads better with "e's" but you will have to buy the book, lol, if it every finds a publisher. I would suggest that if you decide to right a lipogram you start from scratch. I hope you enjoy these short stories find the humor in them, and most of all you remember the joy of childhood.

"Poems from the Quill" is where I place current works that don't fall into other collections. It is here you will find obscure poems that range from constraint to free-verse. I began this collection as a contest entry, years ago, for what was then the poetry side of the Watty's contest and I have since kept it current with odds and ends. Love, peace, and freedom. Olan L. Smith aka Cotton Jones

A Lipogram poem is a type of poem that doesn't have a certain letter in it; mine doesn't use the letter 'a'. I wrote this in an English class as a set task when I was in Year 9.

These poems are my entries for The Attys 2012. Check out the original banners by yours truly on the sides. Please comment and vote as you feel it's deemed, and wish me luck!