Write a Lipogram!
Poetry Contest
A lipogram is a constrained composition which omits one letter or group of letters of the alphabet. Write a poem or a short prose work which excludes letter. For more of a challenge, try to exclude a vowel.
If stumped for a topic, take a simple children's rhyme and re-write it without a letter. For example, Edmark M. Law rewrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb" without the letter 'a' as this:
"Polly owned one little sheep
Its fleece shone white like snow
Every region where Polly went
The sheep did surely go
He followed her to school one time
Which broke the rigid rule
The children frolicked in their room
To see the sheep in school
Or you can have some humorous fun as Tom Etter did for NPR:
Suppose you never had the letter before J
Language would be tough to speak or say.
For you'd have to take a common word
And make a change that was absurd.
Subtract one from ten, and then you'd have NONE
You'd ask a bartender for a shot of GUN
Plumbers would have to mend leaks from POPES
And customer support would handle GROPES
Dorothy would have fought the WATCH of the West
Savants would take a GQ Test
Students would read about great Moby DUCK
And harlots would hope to turn a TRUCK.
There are other letters that could be banned.
Such as N, for there's not much demand
Although t'would be strange, on the stereo of your car
To hear a broadcast on CPR.
Most of all, have fun seeing if you can create or re-create something without a letter and take note of how much that makes a difference.
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool of 72.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Sunday, February 17, 2019.
Full Contest Listing
If stumped for a topic, take a simple children's rhyme and re-write it without a letter. For example, Edmark M. Law rewrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb" without the letter 'a' as this:
"Polly owned one little sheep
Its fleece shone white like snow
Every region where Polly went
The sheep did surely go
He followed her to school one time
Which broke the rigid rule
The children frolicked in their room
To see the sheep in school
Or you can have some humorous fun as Tom Etter did for NPR:
Suppose you never had the letter before J
Language would be tough to speak or say.
For you'd have to take a common word
And make a change that was absurd.
Subtract one from ten, and then you'd have NONE
You'd ask a bartender for a shot of GUN
Plumbers would have to mend leaks from POPES
And customer support would handle GROPES
Dorothy would have fought the WATCH of the West
Savants would take a GQ Test
Students would read about great Moby DUCK
And harlots would hope to turn a TRUCK.
There are other letters that could be banned.
Such as N, for there's not much demand
Although t'would be strange, on the stereo of your car
To hear a broadcast on CPR.
Most of all, have fun seeing if you can create or re-create something without a letter and take note of how much that makes a difference.
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool of 72.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Sunday, February 17, 2019.
