Oulipo

A short beau present poem written using the word “water.”

Cartes Noires is a creative writing exercise to help you craft the plot for a mystery novel in about 30 minutes using only a standard deck of playing cards and your imagination. With it, it is possible to make an elaborate, whodunnit story on the fly.

I made this experimental poem by reading the alphabet aloud forward and backward. It is also what 2000’s era chat bots sounded like when they talk to each other.

In college I experimented with a constrained writing system called the beau present. This is an experimental poem often prepared as a wedding gift. The names of the betrothed serve both as the title of the poem, and as a challenge to the writer.

Writing prompts like the snowball poem are fun for discovering unexpected stories. For instance, this poem focuses on a bisexual two-toed sloth hanging out with con artists deep in discussion about matters of national (and psychic) security.

Growing up I heard this story of two Welsh brothers, my ancestors, stowing away on a ship bound for the new continent. Some time later I decided to turn it into a sort of story using a constrained writing system called “the prisoner’s constraint”.