I got into the Wordle, Quordle, Octordle, etc., games last year. On a whim I took the answers to that day’s Quordle puzzle (https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/quordle/#/) and posted a ridiculously silly poem using those four words as the first words in a four line poem. I posted it on Twitter, and I did it again the next day. My friend David Wright saw it and loved it and joined in.
We made a few sort of formal rules for how to play (and let people break them whenever they wanted, because who cares?). The only truly important rule is to use the previous day’s Quordle words instead of that day’s so that you don’t spoil the puzzle for anyone who wants to play. About a dozen or so people became regular or semi-regular posters on Twitter.
After a few months some people ran out of steam and stopped posting. I was still posting poems from each day’s poems, but sometimes I’d not post one day and catch up the next day with two postings. But I was getting a little tired too. Making myself do it everyday was overly legalistic, and I wasn’t enjoying it as much, so I decided to step back a bit.
About the same time Elon Musk took over Twitter, and a site that already had too much drama got unbearable. I needed a break from the constant outrage. Thankfully, my friend and DQP cobelligerent David developed a dedicated website for posting: dailyquordlepoem.com. It’s a great site, and those of us who were still posting started posting there. Some still cross post to Twitter. I don’t, and it’s great to have one less reason to log on.
Anyway, it’s been great fun. I doubt any of my poems are really all that good, but that’s ok. If it wasn’t for DQP I wouldn’t be writing any poetry at all.
