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Category: poems

5 August

Posted on August 6, 2026 By admin
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Today’s Worku has to POSIT, an abstract, academic verb that naturally wants an argument attached to it. That makes it harder than a concrete noun: the poem must show not only who is speaking, but what claim is being proposed and why. Debbie’s foil poem solves that neatly by turning a kitchen frustration into a tiny thesis—cling wrap fails, the speaker pivots, and “Foil superior” becomes the proposition. Elsewhere, the claims concern taxes, truth, crypto schemes, relationships, steep slopes, and one ambitious toad preparing to publish something unpleasant beside the pond. Some propositions are easier to defend than others.


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4 August

Posted on August 5, 2026 By admin
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Today’s Worku repeats MOTIF, a word about repetition itself. That sounds convenient, but it is an abstract label: naming something a motif is not the same as letting the reader see or hear the pattern. The stronger poems attach it to a concrete form—Puccini’s recurring music, lotus imagery on a yoga mat, or a dragon worked into a torii gate. Diana’s poem shows another useful approach: rather than describing the motif technically, it shows what the music repeatedly does to the listener’s body and heart. Elsewhere, the patterns turn architectural, spiritual, mechanical, and social. A few reveal themselves immediately; others may take a second look to emerge.


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3 August

Posted on August 4, 2026 By admin
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Today’s Worku waits for a REPLY, a word that seems conversationally easy until the other constraints begin making demands of their own. REIFY is the real obstacle here: abstract, three syllables long, and much more at home in philosophy than in a tiny human scene. The stronger poems give the reply a concrete occasion—declining liver, answering a party invitation, responding to a rescue text, judging sourdough, or refusing to answer at all. Debbie’s late entry is a neat example: outrage becomes restraint, and restraint becomes a perfectly polite “No thank you.” Elsewhere, some replies arrive loudly, some anxiously, and at least one is more powerful because it never comes.


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2 August

Posted on August 3, 2026 By admin
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Today’s Worku takes on PENAL, a painful constraint: stiff, bureaucratic, and not exactly overflowing with lyric music. The group generally handles it well by giving the word something vivid or comic to sentence—a dog in a fountain, a shoplifter on the run, an innocent pecan pie, or a bowling rivalry treated like a crime. Mick’s late entry takes the word in a darker direction: guards, leaden sky, and inmates slogging through sodden lanes make PENAL colony feel like the destination the whole poem has been walking toward. The constraint may be punishing, but several poems make the punishment fit.


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1 August

Posted on August 2, 2026 By admin
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Today’s Worku lands on SLUSH, a word that can describe weather, texture, emotional thaw, or suspicious money. That range is useful, but it also creates a trap: the poem can start leaning on rhyme and sound before it has built a scene. Debbie’s second version handles the challenge well by giving SLUSH a physical change to make—the cheeks flush, the silence settles, and the frozen surface begins to melt. Elsewhere, slush becomes corruption, storm debris, a birth-route obstacle, and even a lemony reward after a sock emergency. A few of these poems are cleaner than the subject suggests.


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  • worku is a daily practice where your wordle guesses become a haiku
  • use your guesses in the same order you played them
  • aim for imagery and flavor over perfect grammar
  • add a touch of nature, humor, or irony

“Worku is good for saying what you are thinking, which is why I have so many about cheese. Nice finding a place.” — Mark

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