Four Palindromic Poems

Hello friends,

This week, four palindromes of various kinds. Enjoy! (And if you do, please consider supporting my work by purchasing either The Robots of Babylon or my omnibus edition Knit Ink (and Other Poems).)

Alternatively, buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

First, three poems to mark the summer solstice:

SUMMER SOLSTICE AT STONEHENGE (Palindrome)

Sun!
In my halo,
open,
I mull its altar: All.
I plait its lost light.
I lag, emanating:
I lay a ray, align.
I tan a megalith gilt.
Solstitial pillar, at last illumine —
pool a hymn in us.

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I, DRUID (Palindrome-by-Pairs)

In past, lost lore (no done rot),
Henge, a relic, stole sun —
a June solstice, 
large,
enthroned on ore.
Lost,
lost
pain.

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The next poem is an aelindrome. The aelindrome is a constraint I invented several years back. An aelindrome structures its letters according to a numerical palindrome. For example, the phrase “Melody, a bloody elm” is an aelindrome structured by the sequence 1234321: [m]₁ [el]₂ [ody]₃ [a blo]₄ [ody]₃ [el]₂ [m]₁ (“Melody, a bloody elm”).

By convention, aelindromes are said to be “in” the forward half of their numerical palindrome (up to and including its pivot). Thus, “Melody, a bloody elm” is an aelindrome in 1234.

SOLSTICE (Aelindrome in Pi to 13 digits)
3141592653589

Solstice:
new, it evokes
old needs
and raw senses.

Sun rids us:
what binds us 
bids us.

What sunrise saw
sends and reevokes.

Old, new…
it entices Sol.

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Finally, a poem for Alan Turing, whose 113th birthday is today.

ENIGMA (FOR ALAN TURING) (Palindrome by Pairs)

Decode:

Men awe, 
at that heathen spindle,
to see any machine’s ode....

Cater, Enigma!

I generate codes,
inch —
many ease, 
to lend pins heat;
heat that we name, decode....