With these magazine poems, sometimes even if the entire poem doesn’t hang together perfectly, I find a certain phrase or image that I love and that I never would have written on my own. For example, yesterday, I was pleased with the idea of “Lemon Top, a gorgeous dancer” and then ending firmly with “Her.”

Above is the path I took through the end of the magazine and then back to the cover. I allow myself to use either a single word or a phrase, but my rule is that I have to use them in order. I am allowed to move forward as far as I need to, to get the next word or phrase, but I can’t skip around. 

I’ve been thinking about what kind of person Lemon Top might be. I hope you, too, enjoy some of the odd turns of phrase and surprising juxtapositions in these poems.