Myanmar poet Saw Wai was arrested Tuesday for publishing what appears to be a very bad love poem with a hidden message: it's an acrostic, and read vertically, the first word of each line forms the phrase "Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe."
Than Shwe is the leader of the country's military junta. If I ran a well-trafficked online lit journal, I'd be calling for a quick "Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe" acrostic issue (probably have to go with the first letter, not first word, of each line, unless you're writing in a language--like Saw Wai's Burmese--that can accomodate "Shwe" as a first word). As it is, I haven't been writing poetry for a while, and could use an assignment with constraints. I'll be working on a "Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe" poem today.
UPDATE: Congrats to AJPL for making this chapbook happen.
6 comments:
Dude. That's an awesome idea.
Okay, I've got one up on my blog.
If you can't find a journal to run with this idea, you should put together an anthology or something.
Love the idea! I'm going to work on one. Will post it to my blog soon.
Wow, Angela--I love your "About Me" on your profile--some there I'll need to look up--and "stolentelling"--what an excellent word. Glad you stopped by.
Post a Comment