OULIPOST #2: Jesus and His Bride

Every day this April, nearly 80 poets will write one poem per day by applying constrained writing techniques sourced from the Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle — or “workshop of potential literature”) group to text sourced from their daily local newspaper. This is the second of thirty prompts in the Oulipost project.

The found poem below is in response to this prompt:

OULIPOST #2: LIPOGRAM (NEWSPAPER TITLES)

A lipogram is a text that excludes one or more letters of the alphabet. The ingenuity demanded by the restriction varies in proportion to the frequency of the letter or letters excluded. For this initial exercise, you will compose a poem using only words that can be formed from letters that are NOT found in the title of your newspaper. For example, if you are working with the Washington Post, you must avoid using words that contain the letters A, G, H, I, N, O, P, S, T and W.

I am working with the Daily Nation so I will not use words that contain the letters A, D, I, L, N, O,  T and Y.

Jesus
he spur me up
he keep me fresh
he be chef
he keeper
[but]

Jesus' Church bumps me.

REFERENCES

Kilonzo, Eunice. "Baby Satrine good to go after head surgery." The Daily Nation 2 Apr. 2014: pgs 1 and 4.

Kenyatta, Margaret. "Why I must finish the London Marathon." The Daily Nation 2 Apr. 2014: pg 13.

Gatimi, Karimi. "No, my husband is certainly not my best friend." The Daily Nation 2 Apr. 2014: Living 6 .

@chefraphaelkn. "Mushroom soup with peas." The Daily Nation 2 Apr. 2014: Living pg 8.

Wasonga, Josaya. "My wife's cooking is the best, I insist." The Daily Nation 2 Apr 2014: Living pg 6.

Kilonzo, Eunice."Blood on the floor, worse on the bed." The Daily Nation 2 Apr. 2014: Daily Kenya Living pgs 2 and 3