Oulipost #29: Canada Dry. The name of this procedure is taken from the soft drink marketed as “the champagne of ginger ales.” The drink may have bubbles, but it isn’t champagne. In the words of Paul Fournel, who coined the term, a Canada Dry text “has the taste and color of a restriction but does not follow a restriction.” (A musical example is Andrew Bird’s “Fake Palindromes.”)  Be creative, and write a poem sourced from your newspaper that sounds like it’s been Oulipo-ed, but hasn’t.

Recovery

Walk among the skeletons

across the canyon

damage evokes some sorrow

ashen soil hugged the ground

waiting anxiously

kind of like dance, kind of like life

a sea of wildflowers

Nerds for Nature

bright orange emergence

life rising from the ashes

Sourced from The Contra Costa Times, Bay Area News Group, April 29, 2014 (From the ashes: Mount Diablo recovers from wildfire, Dennis Cuff)