the INLAID EAR

Today I swapped in naturally for needlessly because why should any dramatic action be judged causeless if it's still worth mentioning? Or why should it be judged at all when even a shrug puts something into the mood? I want these words to roam like mountain goats in Death Valley, to be their own reasons with curled horns. And when in illness, age or avalanche they fall, I want to know their bones bleach sharp and clear, in the canyon nobody visits, in the blazing air. What?! Yup.

Lipogram day! Lipo- in this case means lacking or leaving though the spelling is the same as lipo- meaning fat . It's fascinating how the prefix in liposuction works two ways at once! Lipograms are writings in which one more more letters of the alphabet are consciously omitted. This morning I began to recast "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as a lipogram series. My warm up was omitting the letter B , an uncommon  letter, but significant as it begins boat and but . The B lipogram: Row, row, row your raft gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life: it is a dream. Leaving out W was also pretty easy as it only appears in row and down . But replaying row is a little tricky. As an ancient monosyllable, it doesn't have many monosyllabic synonyms. Using paddle destroys the meters. I fell back on a somewhat uncommon verb: Punt, punt, punt your boat gently on the stream... The rest is the same. M is also uncommon, but has a big impact here...