Almost all poetry is constrained to some extent; rhyming scheme and meter are the most common forms. Some experimental poets, however, take it much further to impose highly severe restrictions on writing. These poets are concerned with the formal elements of language, and use constraints as a way to focus on the structural properties of poetry. Penteract Press publishes contemporary constrained, formal, and visual poetry, and Wikipedia has a good introductory article about it.

In constrained poet Christian Bök’s project Xenotext,  two poems map to each other (he encoded a poem into a strand of DNA, which then is transcribed to mRNA). Inspired by the project, my partner and I decided to try writing our own. My partner used an algorithm to generate the letter-pairing and a word-set. He is working on his own technical blog post about it (will link when it’s up). I used the words in that word-set to write a poem.

Wait, mapping what?

I’m not going to go into the details of Bök’s project. Among other sources, you can find a trusty guide here on American Scientist. Instead I’ll describe it as a generic constrained poetry project.

The challenge is to pair each letter of the alphabet with another (ex. a-f, b-z, c-k). Write a poem that still makes sense when you change each letter for its pair.

To do this effectively, we generated a list of words that mapped to each other with our letter-pairs (finding the letter-pairs that would generate the most words was my partner’s work).

For example, the word lust maps to the word rats if your letter-mapping includes:
l – r
u – a
s – t
t – s

The challenge, then, is to write two poems whose letters map to each other.

Observations

There were three challenges.

First, the differences between words that mapped to each other. When one word of the pair is singular and the other plural, one is in past tense and the other is in present tense, it makes demands of the word-pair that comes before and after. Though I may have liked to write “Vets/but runt,” I could not write “Host/was lads,” because the number agreement wasn’t grammatically correct.

Even more challenging, when the words are of a different part of speech — one is a verb, the other an adjective, for example — it often mis-aligns the pacing of the two poems. This made it difficult to write two poems with the same number of words, and line breaks in the same places.

Second are the words themselves. This form of poetry pushes the writer to use obscure words, or refer to the more obscure or marginal definition of a word, or use words that are technically familiar but still read strangely (ex. mas, as a plural of ma, a somewhat anachronistic and/or dialectical word for mother).

I wrote a number of drafts of this poem; the first was totally different than the last. My earlier drafts incorporated all of these problems. As I went on, I simplified and clarified, and ended up using all familiar words, and referring mostly to their standard definition, so that only the last issue remained. It’s still a weird poem.

Third, writing a coherent poem, something that makes sense. I sort of did it. The first poem is evocative of the emotional state of veterinarians during a particular time of year. The second poem could be re-written in a straightforward narrative: a bunch of salesmen selling a product for its natural cotton feel; a man, who is the one to make the decision about buying, is convinced by the sales pitch, but his mom is not. I don’t think either poem conveys much beyond some intuitive sense of meaning, but it is there.

Writing this poem gave me an appreciation for poetic license. The term is often used to describe an inaccuracy we’re willing to forgive because of the flourish it adds. I don’t mean it like that, and I don’t offer my poem(s?) as a good example of poetic license. I mean that poetry is permission to strain the limits of language. Constrained poetry forces the writer to make as much room for meaning as possible, and the reader to explore that space.

A good constrained poem, just like any good piece of literature, will provide words rich in possible meanings. For that reason, I don’t think these poems of mine are especially good, but they’re not bad for 2-hours effort (for reference, Bök took 11 years to complete Xenotext).

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Bök’s Poem

Poet (DNA encoded text)	Germ (RNA encoded text)
any style of life is prim oh stay my lyre with wily ploys moan the riff the riff of any tune aloud moan now my fate in fate we rely my myth now is the word the word of life	the faery is rosy of glow in fate we rely moan more grief with any loss any loss is the achy trick with him we stay oh stay my lyre we wean him of any milk any milk is rosy

Letter Pairs

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Our Poem

Poet (DNA encoded text)	Germ (RNA encoded text)
Lust Runt season messed poor Vets but cud was cut too fat	Rats Lads touted cotton feel Host was man but mas see pus

Letter Pairs

In the poems above, the letters mapped to each other in the following way:

Alphabet	Xenocode
a	u
b	w
c	m
d	n
e	o
f	p
g	z
h	v
i	k
j	x
k	i
l	r
m	c
n	d
o	e
p	f
q	y
r	l
s	t
t	s
u	a
v	h
w	b
x	j
y	q
z	g

Word Set

With the letter-mapping above, these word-pairs were available to write two poems with:

A	B
aft	ups
ape	ufo
at	us
bed	won
beds	wont
bee	woo
been	wood
beep	woof
beer	wool
beet	woos
belts	worst
bern	wold
blots	wrest
boo	wee
boon	weed
born	weld
bow	web
bud	wan
buds	want
bun	wad
bunk	wadi
burr	wall
but	was
buts	wast
can	mud
cant	muds
cats	must
cede	mono
cob	mew
cod	men
coda	menu
coos	meet
corn	meld
cotton	messed
court	meals
cub	maw
cud	man
cult	mars
curs	malt
cuss	matt
cut	mas
cuts	mast
dad	nun
dead	noun
deb	now
deed	noon
den	nod
dent	nods
do	ne
dots	nest
east	outs
eastern	outsold
eats	oust
fad	pun
fads	punt
fall	purr
fast	puts
fat	pus
fears	poult
feast	pouts
feel	poor
felon	pored
fen	pod
fest	pots
flood	preen
fob	pew
folk	peri
fool	peer
foul	pear
four	peal
fullest	parrots
fun	pad
fur	pal
goat	zeus
hero	vole
hers	volt
horn	veld
horns	veldt
hose	veto
host	vets
hour	veal
huts	vast
ides	knot
knot	ides
lad	run
lads	runt
lapp	ruff
las	rut
last	ruts
law	rub
least	routs
lee	roo
lees	root
lent	rods
lesson	rotted
lest	rots
locks	remit
loft	reps
lone	redo
loon	reed
loop	reef
lop	ref
lots	rest
lust	rats
lux	raj
malt	curs
man	cud
mars	cult
mas	cut
mast	cuts
matt	cuss
maw	cub
meals	court
meet	coos
meld	corn
men	cod
menu	coda
messed	cotton
mew	cob
mono	cede
mud	can
muds	cant
must	cats
ne	do
nest	dots
nod	den
nods	dent
noon	deed
noun	dead
now	deb
nun	dad
oust	eats
outs	east
outsold	eastern
pad	fun
pal	fur
parrots	fullest
peal	four
pear	foul
peer	fool
peri	folk
pew	fob
pod	fen
poor	feel
pored	felon
pots	fest
poult	fears
pouts	feast
preen	flood
pun	fad
punt	fads
purr	fall
pus	fat
puts	fast
quit	yaks
raj	lux
rats	lust
redo	lone
reed	loon
reef	loop
ref	lop
remit	locks
reps	loft
rest	lots
rods	lent
roo	lee
root	lees
rots	lest
rotted	lesson
routs	least
rub	law
ruff	lapp
run	lad
runt	lads
rut	las
ruts	last
sad	tun
saps	tuft
saw	tub
seal	tour
seas	tout
season	touted
see	too
seer	tool
sees	toot
slats	trust
slums	tract
sod	ten
sods	tent
sold	tern
son	ted
soon	teed
soot	tees
soul	tear
sour	teal
sud	tan
sums	tact
tact	sums
tan	sud
teal	sour
tear	soul
ted	son
teed	soon
tees	soot
ten	sod
tent	sods
tern	sold
too	see
tool	seer
toot	sees
tour	seal
tout	seas
touted	season
tract	slums
trust	slats
tub	saw
tuft	saps
tun	sad
ufo	ape
ups	aft
us	at
vast	huts
veal	hour
veld	horn
veldt	horns
veto	hose
vets	host
vole	hero
volt	hers
wad	bun
wadi	bunk
wall	burr
wan	bud
want	buds
was	but
wast	buts
web	bow
wee	boo
weed	boon
weld	born
wold	bern
won	bed
wont	beds
woo	bee
wood	been
woof	beep
wool	beer
woos	beet
worst	belts
wrest	blots
yaks	quit
zeus	goat