“April Is the Cruelest Month, [Because]”

 

We have an exciting new project on our hands. But first, here are two versions of our renga, one provided by Millicent Caliban:

A tropic spring night,
Making Mole poblano—
We drank wine with ice

Zinfandel: dark, fruity, rich,
Pairs well, or so he told me

The scent of chiles,
Chocolate and canela—
Vivaldi: salud!

Senses primed for sweet and tart
Will yield to bliss before dawn.

… And the other by Paul Michelsen:

A tropic spring night,
Making Mole poblano—
We drank wine with ice

Below clouds’ close voyages —
moon tipped on its slender back

The scent of chiles,
Chocolate and canela—
Vivaldi: salud!

Wash out the taste of winter
With this: La Primavera

While the renga as a form can theoretically be extended indefinitely, this seems a good place to suspend the effort.


Our next contest has to do with the current month. I want us to take a look at the famous opening of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”:

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Now remove the word “breeding,” substitute an invisible “because,” and write a worthy second line.

Deadline: Sunday, April 10, 2016, at 5 P.M.

Permission required for reprinting, reproducing, or other uses.

David Lehman, a contributing editor of the Scholar, is a poet, critic, and the general editor of The Best American Poetry annual anthology and author of the book One Hundred Autobiographies. He currently writes our Talking Pictures column.

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