Month: March 2026

Today’s Constraint: SHOAL

Today’s poems gathered around the shoreline, where shallow water becomes a place of pause, danger, or rest. Writers approached the shoal from different angles: a harbor mist settling quietly over the morning, a shifting sandbar echoing a grammar lesson, a surreal toast beside the water, and a raft striking ground where the map promised passage. The constraint naturally pulled the group toward moments of navigation—places where expectations meet the hidden shape of the sea.

Today’s Constraint: HASTY

Today’s poems explored the consequences of rushing—quick decisions, quick encounters, and quick words that don’t quite land right. Some writers framed haste as emotional impulse, others as culinary regret or mental misfire. Across the group, the constraint pushed poems toward moments where speed overrides judgment, leaving behind awkward meals, sharp exchanges, or a sudden retreat into the night.

Today’s poems treated the lobby as a gathering place where odd scenes unfold—fezzes crowding a hotel hall, a moulting python startling guests, strange figures licking lollipops, and even linguistic mischief in the meeting room. The constraint encouraged writers to stage encounters in public spaces, turning the lobby into a small theater where humor, discomfort, and spectacle briefly share the same room.

Why We Worku – to practice noticing. The game gives us a few stubborn words and asks us to make something small and alive from them. Sometimes the result is funny, sometimes strange, sometimes unexpectedly true. In just three lines we try to catch a moment, an image, or a thought before it slips away. The constraints make it harder—but that difficulty is the point. It slows us down, sharpens our attention, and reminds us that even a handful of words can hold a whole world if we look closely enough.

On today’s constraint – The room leaned into sound and play today. With a constraint that almost begs for rhyme and texture, many poems explored sticky, messy outcomes—muddy paths, gummy teeth, failed bread, and chaotic moments that leave a lingering residue. The group clearly enjoyed the playful phonetics of the word, letting rhythm and rhyme drive the poems as much as image. The result was a lively set where language itself felt a little… gunky