This week on Next Line, Please, the prompt is to play with double alliteration, an experiment introduced to us by Aaron Fogel in a poem called “BW,” which was published in 1988.
Building on this idea, Jim Dolot used his own initials in writing “Dictionary Jazz,” (1996). The poem begins, “Jack Derrida / Identifies himself / To the police / Of Jewish dreams / As John Doe” and has this memorable riff:
Jeanne d’Arc
A jailbird—
A jackdaw—
Her jeremiads
Became his
Jeux d’esprit.
For next time, please write a poem or poems—with a 16-line limit—that plays on two letters. You may use your initials, or letter-pairings in wide use (such as Uncle Sam, us, upset, untied slates, unusual surface, screwed up, und so weiter). I think NLP regulars will go to town with this prompt.
Visit the American Scholar's page to read the post in full, and to enter your candidate.
– Virginia Valenzuela