He turns toward his wife, so she
can be reflective, you can be remorseful, you
let go of habits that no longer serve.

Indulge your curiosity, and try
to share the fact that he has no regrets,
sees nothing wrong with what he’s done. In fact,

I think we knew the story, too, which kind
officials subsequently traced — a small
device that uses kinetic energy.

They wondered whether surgery could fix
the odds of learning something that would save
this type of disconnect — a gap between.

I’m asking him to think about something,
or every single question asked of him:
a rubber ball to squeeze, but he kept dropping it.

His name, therefore, is thrown around often.
A ceremony of another kind.

Sources:
Appleford, Steve. “Errol Morris pores over Rumsfeld’s words”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014: Arts + Entertainment, 2.

Black, Nancy. Horoscopes. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014:  Arts + Entertainment, 9.

Bullington, Jonathan. “Dog has quite an unusual tale: Abandoned for over a month in vacant apartment, pooch survives — thrives”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014: 9.

Cohen, Jodi S. “Slight of hands: Wael Farouk can’t make a fist or open a jar, but he’s mastered one of the toughest challenges for any pianist”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014: 1.

Forina, Anastasia. “Northwestern students win $75K for device”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014:  Business, 4.

Frink, Sarah. “Getting the good out of a not-so-good evaluation”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014:  Business, 14.

McIntyre, Gina. “… and endangered men”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014:  Arts + Entertainment, 1.

Noel, Josh.  “Way off the path: Charming, undeveloped Bimini a rarity even to Bahamians”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014: Travel, 1.

Zorn, Eric. “Reusable bags may be dirty but they’re better than plastic”. Chicago Tribune. 6 April 2014: 16.

The prompt:  Compose a poem using unintentional lines of iambic pentameter found in your newspaper.
http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/oulipost-6-blank-verse-amidst-the-prose/

Rise,
radioactive river!

Removed,
recent.

(Rapid removal)

-Radioactive-

Reimburse regional remove,
Radioactive,
River.

*****

Humans history.

Homo human has her human,
has half,
has — have — history.

Heretofore: history,
History: home.

Having her,
have hibernated hundreds,
has halfway,
(has)
have her–
her human history–
human history home.

Has hunting human,
(huge hinting)
Homo have harmony.

humbled.

horrified.

 
Sources (in order of appearance):
Hawthorne, Michael and Matthew Walberg. “$130M OK’d to clean up Chicago-area radioactive waste”. Chicago Tribune. 5 April 2014: 4.
Bentley, Chris. “A product of our own true nature:
‘The Sixth Extinction’ examines whether humans are causing the planet’s upheaval or are victims of their destiny”. Chicago Tribune. 5 April 2014: 13.

 
The prompt:
Compose a poem whose words — or at least the principal ones — all begin with the same letter. The words must be sourced from your newspaper.
http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/oulipost-5-tautogram/

People in general sloped backward,
allowing to remain
(in the same condition)
a male —
to the exclusion of all others —
lodging in a house —
or building.

Human beings —
as distinguished from animals —
or other beings,
not specific
or definite,
inclined in the reverse (of the usual way),
permitting by neglect,
oversight (or the like)
to stay behind —
unchanged in character, condition.

The specific portion of space
normally occupied (by anything)
a restricting,
limiting (or modifying)
circumstance.

A staminate plant —
a keeping apart —
different in nature or kind.

The greatest possible being:  the remaining ones (of a number).

To be the property of
a temporary place to stay (one fourth of an hour),
a building for any purpose,
anything
built
or constructed.

Sympathetic substances or natures,
(conspicuous, marked),
an inhuman person,
being the remaining ones (of a number).

A living thing :
specified —
precise —
particular —
having fixed limits —
tending in a direction that makes an angle (with anything else)
flat or level,
situated at the vertex,
acting in a manner opposite or contrary (to that which is usual),
as an appliance or apparatus,
habitual
or customary.

Most convenient,
desirable or favorable:
a direction (or vicinity),
tolerating disregard,
watchful care.

(Ilk).

To hold out —
or endure —
in a stage already passed (unchanged in character).

Any spot in a surface
not altered or different in any way.

One such feature or trait —
social position
peculiar to somebody,
serving a system of objects
(with relations between the objects defined according to general custom) —
took possession,
no matter what.

Confining —
serving (to restrain) —
softening minor details,
having stamens
but no pistils.

A scheme
to swindle custody (aside):
various elements of the natural world.

Loving
large in number
that may (or can) be a living thing,
left after the destruction of all else
(noting some indefinite day in the future).

The sum of a collection of units
(to remain as before)
a piece of land,
effective for a time only,
a space set apart
for a particular purpose.

To endure —
next —
after the third
(the time indicated by a timepiece):
the act of constructing
houses.

The subject in hand:
Something —
no matter what —
Of sound or sturdy construction.

An image formed
from a number
of simpler
elements.

Source:  Kass, John. “Why the rush to subdue old man? Charge alleges cop beanbag rounds just weren’t needed.”  Chicago Tribune. 3 April 2014: 1.

The prompt: Select a single sentence from a newspaper article. Replace each meaningful word in the text [verb, noun, adjective, adverb] by its dictionary definition. Repeat this treatment on the resulting sentence, and so on, until you’ve had enough! Note that after only two such treatments with a relatively compact dictionary, even a two-word sentence can produce an accumulation of 57 words.
http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/oulipost-3-definitional-lit/

My sentence:  “They retreated, leaving him alone in his room.”

Denial of the science is malpractice.

If you come into the office (and ask)
Was that actually true?
The answer is no.

I met with someone a month ago, and she read a list of questions. One was,
How do we keep women?

I slowly came to understand
how limited and clumsy an approximation was my model of her,
how many variables I had not accounted for
(whose existence I had not even guessed),
and how large and liberating a role chance played in all our affairs.

Even though she named me individually
I felt the clock ticking,
I was the only child, and I lived 1,500 miles away
It was not easy.
It is hard to separate the real ones that are emotional
versus the actual conversations that you might have.

The realization was staggering.
There are other people like me.
So many, in fact, that they have a name for us.

We’re all attracted and gravitate toward positive people,
upbeat people,
people with energy,
We want to feed off of that.

We have a bat, too, so we have a say in how it turns out

But I always watch one more tape after it’s happened to make sure.

Sources:
“The gap years: Women leave the workforce for a variety of reasons, including to raise their children or care for aging parents. But finding jobs after long absences can be difficult. Here are some women who have used re-entry programs to find employment.” Chicago Tribune digitalPLUS Magazine. 1 April 2014: 6. Print.

Cohen, Jodi S. and Stacy St. Clair. “Juror issues may trigger retrial:
Foreman of panel that sided against CSU in wrongful termination suit was also defendant in dispute filed by relative of trustee.” Chicago Tribune. 1 April 2014: 6. Print.

Dardick, Hal and Bill Ruthhart. “Mayor’s pension fix: Tax, cut property taxes would rise, benefits would shrink for some city employees, but $600M crisis still looms.” Chicago Tribune. 1 April 2014: 1. Print.

Miller, Greg, Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima. “Senate report casts doubts on CIA interrogation claims.” Chicago Tribune. 1 April 2014: 10. Print.

Preston, Jennifer. “Paving the way: New programs help women return to workforce after taking breaks to raise children, care for parents.” Chicago Tribune digitalPLUS Magazine. 1 April 2014: 3. Print.

Reuters. “Global warming threat escalated in U.N. report.” Chicago Tribune. 1 April 2014: 11. Print.

Rosin, Hanna. “Letting go of Asperger’s: Months after our son was diagnosed, the label officially disappeared. And that turned out to be a good thing.” Chicago Tribune digitalPLUS Magazine. 1 April 2014: 11. Print.

Sullivan, Paul. “Lame old story: Offense instantly reverts to form.” Chicago Tribune. 1 April 2014, sec. Sports: 1. Print.

Wiederer, Dan. “With Allen, it all checks out: Pass rusher believes in his new team as much as it believes in him.” Chicago Tribune. 1 April 2014, sec. Sports: 2. Print.

The prompt:
When composing a cento, poets take lines from existing poems (traditionally without any alterations) and patch them together to form a new poem. Today, create a cento using only quotes referenced in newspaper articles. For example, if a newspaper article contained the line “It was a tragedy,” commented Detective Smith, the line, “It was a tragedy,” would be available for you to use in your poem. While you can’t change anything within the quotes themselves, you may choose to break a longer quote in half or use just part of a quote as needed.
http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/oulipost-1-quote-cento/

WARM-UP #2: BLANK VERSE AMIDST THE PROSE

And now for something slightly more difficult…compose a poem using unintentional lines of iambic pentameter found in your newspaper (or practice source).

My source:  http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-03-14/news/ct-des-plaines-oasis-closing-met-20140315_1_des-plaines-oasis-tri-state-tollway-dagan

The results:

The sea of superhero-themed plush toys
So easily attainable with just
Correct maneuvering of a claw crane
the perfect place for him to experience
with greasy fair and weary truckers
“It might seem kind of cheesy but to me…”
And lying on a picnic table bench
The oasis of her memory is not the same