Outsider Poems, a Mini-Anthology in Progress (6): Four Palindrome Poems

Graham Reynolds
Shipwreck

Ebb be.
Sloops’ sleek keels.
Deeps speed.
Dirge, gride;
Race, fast salt,
A deluge guled.
Oh surf, rush,
O, glibe
Big swash saws;
Reel, leer.
Yaw. A raft.
Far eve,
Tar at dusk,
Cord, lock,
Rack, cark,
Cold rock,
Sud,
Tar at eve,
Raft far away.
Reel, leer,
Swash saws,
Gibe big,
Oh, surf, rush
O deluge guled.
At last safe.
Care, dirge, grid.
Deeps speed,
Sleek keels’ spools:
Ebb be.

J.A. Lindon
Three Palindrome Poems

STITCHES IN TIME

We sew.
Nell, Edna,
Ada –
(I
hem, eh?)
– Enid and Nadine
loop, spin, snip
“Damosel” silk, cut
elastic – “I’ll iron,”
went on Sal.
“A ruffle’s a slip!” I railed.
No, not to cod,
Di held e’en
Sharon’s
pull-ups!
Norah’s
needle hid?
Do cotton on, Delia!
Rip Ilsa’s elf-fur –
alas, not new
nor illicit sale –
tuck lisle so mad,
pin, snip, spool . . .
Enid and Nadine
hem, eh?
I,
Ada,
and Ellen,
we sew.


INTO THE UNKNOWN

Rise, cap!
Sniff oxygen . . .
Do orbits alter?
Cesta, rise!
No g–
Gyrator still upon
Sun, every gyre
Venus
No pull
It’s rotary –
G gone, sir
At secret last I brood
Neg, yx . . .
Off in space, sir!


STACY’S SUPER-AWARE PUSSY-CATS

Pal?
Pal-pal?
(Purrrrh!)
Pals?

It’s MIAOW
Tony
Cats
Sit, walk
Cats
Spill, lap milk

Eels
(Meek, ample)
Help make ’em
Sleek
Limp
All lips

Stack-law ’tis
Stacy
No two aims
’Tis
Lap . . .
(Hrrrrup!)
Lap, lap . . .
Lap . . .

[Palindrome poems, reading the same back to front like shorter, more familiar palindromes, reside outside the limits of accepted literature. Yet works like these will often bear a stunning resemblance to language-centered poetry & prose by the likes of Joyce and Zukofsky, & even more so to the rule-ordered writing of the French Oulipo poets & twentieth-century experimentalists such as Mac Low and Cage. Further examples of poetry by Reynolds and Lindon can be found in Howard W. Bergerson’s rich & powerful Palindromes and Anagrams (Dover Publications, 1973), from which these samples have been taken. Earlier postings on "outsider poems" can be found by using the checklist in the column on the right or the search window at upper left.]