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Full text supplied in Poem-without-e.txt. Complete text from the supplied TXT file. Wording is preserved; typography and paragraph layout are adapted for reading on the website.
Today I decided to conduct a tiny literary experiment: write a poem without using the letter e, the most common letter in English.
The constraint is arbitrary. I wanted to see whether something beautiful could emerge from it.
At dawn, a small boat slips away.
Its oars draw rings on blackish glass.
A gull calls out; no soul looks up.
Along a bank, tall willows bow.
Far off, a foghorn sings to fog.
Small roofs turn gold; a window glows.
By noon, no mark of it will last.
But in my mind, that boat still rows.
The interesting thing about such constraints is that they force unexpected choices. I couldn’t write river, water, reflection, silence, or memory. The language had to find other routes.
I particularly like the last line. The boat continues traveling, but only in someone’s mind.
A little experiment in how an arbitrary restriction can become a source of imagination. 🌿
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Poem-without-e.txtPreserved unchanged as supplied. Download a copy to keep the original file.