OULIPOST#13: Marriage song for the Late

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 thirteenth of thirty prompts in the Oulipost project.

The found poem below is in response to this prompt:

Oulipost #13: EPITHALAMIUM

 An Oulipian epithalamium, or marriage song, is one composed exclusively with the letters of the names of bride and groom (bride and bride, groom and groom, etc). Visit the engagement or wedding announcements section of your newspaper and select a couple. Write a poem using only words that can be made with the letters in their name. You may choose to use first names only if you prefer anonymity or full names if you’re desperate for more letters.

There were no names mentioned in the wedding section so I looked at the next page and found the obituary of the Late Judith, wife to the Late Lawrence.

unwed

undead

untethered

d( )wn under.

Raw dance

Late dance

Lithe dance

d( )wn under.

and hence

and thence

and whence?

d( )wn under. 

we wander

we thunder

d( )wn under

we're rendered.

REFERENCES

 Obituaries. The Sunday Nation. 13 Apr. 2014: pg 49.