Essay

2002: The Year of the Palindrome

by

Beverly C. Lucey
 

Palindromes are words or phrases that read the same when scanned both forward and backward. Example:

"Nurse! I spy gypsies! Run!"

Palindromes hold a backwards~forwards place in my heart. How cool to notice or think up something that reads exactly the same, letter by letter, forwards and back again. Since we are living in a Palindromic Year (2002), and we'll be dead before the next one--(2112) it's a good time to explore them again, as a way of encouraging people to take a closer look at the construction and set up of words.

Allegedly one of the shortest poems ever written is a palindrome.

"Madam, I'm Adam."

Single words can be palindromes, as long as they read the same backwards and forwards:

kayak
radar
civic
sagas
nun
noon
eye

Names can be palindromes as well:

Eve
Hannah
Otto
Ava

But the phrases are more fun, and go far beyond the familiar but impressive,
"A man, a plan, a canal, Panama."

*Remember, we ignore the inconvenience of capitalization and punctuation when reading a palindrome. We give that up in favor of the magic that the letters create--a complete whole, forward and backward.

What can you do with Palindromes? Play, have fun. Make up cartoons and give them palindromic captions.

What are doddering geezer cats, with canes and shawls and rocking chairs, looking quite confused?

Senile Felines

How about two people in a car, legs sticking out a window.

Dennis and Edna Sinned.
Author of above: J. A. Lindon also coined this attitude toward beer:

"Lager, sir, is regal."

We don't know who coined the following:

A slut nixes sex in Tulsa...but we are glad she asserted herself, for once.

"Rise to vote, sir!" is a message we all might do well to heed, considering how few people exercise the privilege.

You may have a peculiar cousin. Have you wondered, "Neil, an alien?"

A warehouse manager was horrified to learn that his stock had been burgled over night. "No trace--not one carton."

For a singer who is SO five minutes ago? "Yawn. Madonna fan? No damn way."

***

One source you might enjoy is an online magazine devoted to the palindrome. It's called, not surprisingly, The Palindromist

Please remember the Animal Lovers' Golden Rule: "Step on no pets."

So I'm not dumping my bucket of respect for palindromes, although I do hope this year will not provide a comeback tour of ABBA.



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Beverly Carol Lucey has published short fiction in Portland Maine Magazine, Flint River Review 1999 (GA), Moxie Winter edition 2000 (CA) Four stories are anthologized in We Teach Them All (Stenhouse Press, Maine). Another is in the Quality Women’s Fiction, 2001 (UK). Four non-fiction pieces will appear in upcoming editions of the inspirational Chocolate for Women series.

Extensive presence online include ezines: Zoetrope All Story Extra, Vestal Review, CollectedStories.com, and Millennium Shift.

The author, a life long educator, lives in Georgia, and is a member of the Georgia Writers Association.

Visit her websites:

THE LANGUAGE WRANGLER on education.

POODLE PRESS - for animal lovers.

A WOMAN OF A CERTAIN AGE for humor and fun.

ETHICAL OASIS for everyday ethics.