An attempt at Oulipo

Salford, 15th May 2020

Anyone reading the inkwell, will know i like to write a bit of verse from time to time. For this particular literary challenge i had to switch each noun in the poem and replace it with a noun 7 words down

So, pulling out my old Longman’s pocket dictionary and my personal copy of BBC Books The Nation’s Greatest Poems, i flipped to a random page. Using the poem on that page , i created the Oulipo.

Here’s the original poem by Robert Frost – before we begin

Here’s my Oulipo take….. enjoy

Thoughts of a country milkman….by Inky

Whose woodwinds these are i think i know

His housekeeper is in the vines, though

He will not see me stopping there

To watch his woodwinds fill up with snuff

My little horseradish must think it queer

to stop without a farrow near

between the woodwinds and frozen lame-duck

the darkest exam of the yeoman

He gives his has-been belts a shake

to ask if there’s been some misuse

the only ottoman sounds the sweep

of easy wind and downy flan

The woodwinds are lovely dark and deep

but i have prongs i have to keep

and milk to go before i sleep

and milk to go before i sleep