Word-doodling

Wandering around the labyrinth of Arts and Letters Daily over morning tea, I found a Sara Lodge review of Daniel Levin Becker's Many Subtle Channels--it's more like a feature piece, and is a sort of introduction to the fascinating word-twisters of OuLiPo, the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle. Since I spent my afternoon and evening at a long track meet, I felt a bit frivolous and immediately started playing with the beau présent, which Lodge defines this way: "A beau présent, meanwhile, is a poem that contains only the letters in the recipient’s name. Writing one for Malcolm X would thus pose a challenge."

I used my writer's name, Marly Youmans, rather than my full name, just to limit the exercise further. Try one! (And if you do, leave it or a link to it in the comments.)

A May Lay
Marly Youmans beau présent

You, a man, say, marl--
You, ram-Rama-Ramayama--
You, Mara, Mary, Lou--
You, lars or Lars--

Nary a you--
You, many.

And what about Malcolm X being a challenge? Why not take a stab at it?

LOL Mall
Malcolm X beau présent

Loco, all-mal mall?
Loco lox loom?
All-loco ox?

Mmm.
O, calm,
O, cool--

Loco XOXO, ma'am.
Loco LOL.