none we see
o, come as one
as reams on war concern us
crimson raw
come, o come as caucus names
secure a man
as sermons answer
none unseen
once our arms were raw
nerves owes sense in sex
iron nooses carve as vises
as severance weaves
a scorn in wine
a scarecrow’s sneeze
seven women cross us
wise in vice
scream a “never sin”
a son ensues as no one never ever
exercises “no”
we swoon in azure suns
o cancerous moon
The 4th day of the creation by M.C. Esher
Doing oulipo can be a lot of fun.. this is done using a prisoner’s constraint where all the letters extending below (g,y, j etc. ) or above (b, d, k,…).
Björn Rudbergs writings 
you did much better than I with avoiding ascenders and descenders. I looked online for a list of words that would fit the constraint, but couldn’t find one…not sure how long it would take to weed through a dictionary to find suitable words. Hard…but fun challenge!
I actually cheated by browsing through other poems finding words.. but I also did my favorite thing.. went online and ran through Bleak House to find additional word.
No one ever exercises ‘no.’ Yes, this seems to be the way it is these days. Excellent technique here, Bjorn. I’m impressed with the varied responses you have made to this challenge.
ha. def makes for some wild lines…the seven women crossing…screaming never sin…what a haunting image…
the iron nooses line as well…
Ouch… and you found a letter that shouldn’t be there.. the g in screaming had to be ostracized — thank you.
pretend you are from the South…screamin’
what about apostrophe 🙂
They I have accepted.. they are like the i:s that are allowed.. 🙂
🙂 good job!
This is an excellent piece of work and a wonderful response to the prompt. No ascenders or descenders are hard. Amazing our inspirations…I run to ts eliot or Emily Dickinson…. the “o come” adds a bit of chant to this as well as antiquity.
Very impressive Bjorn ~ Must try this one time 🙂
Again, cleverly done.
This one has attitude…funny ‘a scarecrow’s sneeze’ …
I like how you took on this challenge. Restrictions, sometimes, just make us work harder and be more creative. This is an excellent poem.
oh wow… good job… i think i couldn’t do it
loved esp. the lines…a scarecrow’s sneeze…and
seven women cross us… there’s a nice magic in this
I like the pattern in this poem … you used the prompt perfectly 🙂
I don’t know what Oulipa means–I will check–but this is very clever and memorably done, Bjorn. k.
Oulipo is a set of techniques to constrain and create new poems out of limitations..
I wanted to leave you with this link. If you scroll down you’ll find many writing experiments from Bernadette Mayer, enjoy! http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.html
I think we have a year’s worth of ideas.. plus I have a few I have tried.. On thing I have tried is to combine nouns and adjectives that really are surprising.. for instance a crazy door .. or loquacious walls.. take 2-3 such combinations and the poem writes itself almost.
Dark, but well-done, Bjorn. 🙂 — Suzanne
Very interesting – and once again sent me googling away. This time to “oulipo”. I don’t think I could be that disciplined in my writing – though I admire your daring and am genuinely impressed at your finesse in deftly avoiding those tenacious ascenders and descenders.