shorter than haiku

Poem-A-Day April 23: A Blank White Page

A Blank White Page

is a meadow
after a snowfall
that a poem
hopes to cross

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Hello Friends,

Today’s poem appears in poet Francisco X. Alarcón’s 2001 collection Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems. For other blank page poems, see “The Thought-Fox” by Ted Hughes and “How the mind works still to be sure” by Jennifer Denrow.

I hope you’re enjoying poetry month!

— Ællen

Poem-A-Day April 11: The tiger is out

The Tiger

The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out

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Hello Friends,

Today’s poem-a-day is a Meet Me in 811 first: We are featuring a poem by a 6-year-old.

Several of you may recognize today’s poem from Twitter or Instagram. It’s been enough years that a whole genre of short poems and poem snippets are now designed specifically for these social mediums. But that was not actually the case with today’s poem, which originated in the creative writing program at 826DC and appears in their first anthology You Will Be Able to Say a Thousand Words (2016).

Any of you who knew me in SF know I’m a huge 826 fan! If there’s any number that competes with 811, it might be 826. This non-profit started by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) focuses on free access to writing, tutoring, and publishing for youth 6-18 in under-resourced communities, and each chapter has a storefront theme (The Pirate Supply Store, The Wicker Park Secret Agent Supply Co., Tivoli’s Astounding Magic Supply Co., The New Orleans Haunting Supply Co., Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair, the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute, and so on). I admit, for me, the 826 magic store in DC isn’t quite as magical as the original 826 pirate store in SF — but it did produce this poem, so I think they’re doing good work.

Nael (who was 6 at the time he wrote this poem, but is now 8) manages to say quite a lot with twelve words. What can you say with twelve words? Give it a try!

How is Nael dealing with his viral fame, write-ups and podcasts from famous authors, comparisons to Blake, fan requests to tattoo his poem on their bodies? Read more here.

— Ellen

put a food stamp on this poem and eat it.

Hello Friends,

I’m going to cheat a little bit today and send you a series of short poems (instead of just one poem) by my favorite street poet, Julia Vinograd. These excerpts are from her collection Berkeley Street Cannibals: Selected Poems, 1969-1976.

Enjoy.
Ellen

SPRING

There’s coke
in the spoon
of June.

■

GRAFFITTI

Bathrooms inspire me.
I write my best poems
with my pants down.

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BOREDOM

We repeat ourselves
helplessly
like hiccups.

■

WIFE

She hangs his laundry
out to dry
between her thighs.

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THE F.B.I.

Not even lovers
look so close
and see so little.

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HITCH-HIKING

Couples don’t stop.
They have their own problems.

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HARD TIMES

put a food stamp on this poem
and eat it.

■

STREET MORALITY

Everything is permitted,
but nothing is taken seriously.

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WHAT NOW?

We’ve forgotten the rules
we were trying to break.

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Poet Julia Vinograd was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 25, 2011, Poem-a-Day April 12, 2009, and Poem-a-Day April 20, 2007.

Poem-a-Day April 5: haiku-esque

Hello Friends —

Like yesterday’s “Killing Flies,” today’s (very different) poem also can be read as dream or nightmare. Robert Hass is one of the foremost translators of haiku into English, and you can see the influence of the haiku form on today’s poem, which opens his collection Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005.

———————————

IOWA, JANUARY

In the long winter nights, a farmer’s dreams are narrow.
Over and over, he enters the furrow.

———————————

For narrow, see also Poem-a-Day April 3, 2011.
For furrow, see also Poem-a-Day April 27, 2007.
For haiku-esque, see also Poem-a-Day April 29, 2011; Poem-a-Day April 2, 2009; Poem-a-Day April 14, 2008; Poem-a-Day April 5, 2008; and Poem-a-Day April 20, 2007.

Poem-a-Day, April 2: Sharks & Roses

At the cemetery, I noticed how each rose
grew on a shark-infested stem.

This couplet comes from contemporary British poet Craig Raine’s first collection, The Onion, Memory (1978). Raine is perhaps best known for describing our everyday visual experience of the world from the point of view of a Martian trying to make sense of it all.

Poems shorter than haiku were also featured for Poem-a-Day April 20, 2007; Poem-a-Day April 5, 2008; and Poem-a-Day April 14, 2008.

Poem-a-day, April 14: apparition

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

***

Hi Friends,

Today’s poem is from Personae (1926) by Ezra Pound.

Enjoy.
Ellen

This poem is not actually “shorter than haiku” by syllable count. But I’m going to count it amongst other strongly haiku-influenced works featured in my poem-a-day series: see also Poem-a-Day April 20, 2007; Poem-a-Day April 14, 2008; and Poem-a-Day April 2, 2009.

Poem-a-day, April 5: shorter than haiku

Jamesian

Their relationship consisted
In discussing if it existed.

***

Dear Friends,

I had the privilege of being one of Thom Gunn‘s last students before he passed away. A couple of British journalists called from overseas when it happened, eager to ask me about what that was like.

My vision is of Thom Gunn walking into the classroom, taking the chair in the center of the room, propping his well-worn black leather boots up on the table, crossing his legs, leaning back, unbuttoning and rolling up just one of his sleeves so we could all see the black panther of tattoo roaring beneath the white hairs and loosening skin of his forearm, and waiting for the bunch of ignorant undergraduate students milling about to realize that Thom Gunn was in the room. Sadly, most of them never did.

Towards the end of the quarter, Thom told me I was by far the most “adventurous” writer in his class. Given how he lived and wrote his own life, I am fairly certain that was a compliment — one that I carry with me and aspire to some day live up to.

“Jamesian” is from Gunn’s 1992 collection The Man with Night Sweats.

April is National Poetry Month, and I am celebrating by emailing out my own eclectic selection of one poem per day for the duration of the month. You can always learn more about National Poetry Month or sign up for a more official-like poem-a-day list at www.poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets.

Enjoy.
Ellen

Poet Thom Gunn was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 28, 2009.
Poems shorter than haiku were also featured for Poem-a-Day April 20, 2007; Poem-a-Day April 14, 2008; and Poem-a-Day April 2, 2009.

Poem-a-Day, April 20: shorter than haiku

DOWNHILL

I don’t have a home
and I live there
all the time.

Hello Friends —

Today’s poem is by Julia Vinograd, from Berkeley Street Cannibals: Selected Poems, 1969-1976.

April is National Poetry Month, and I am celebrating by emailing out my own eclectic selection of one poem per day for the duration of the month. If you wish to be unsubscribed from this Poem-a-Day email list at any time, please reply to this email with a friendly unsubscribe request (preferably in heroic couplet form). You may also request to add a consenting friend to the list, or even nominate a poem.

To learn more about National Poetry Month, or to subscribe to a more official-like Poem-a-Day list, visit www.poets.org.

Enjoy.
Ellen

Poems by Julia Vinograd were also featured for Poem-a-Day April 12, 2009 and Poem-a-Day April 25, 2011.
Poems shorter than haiku were also featured for Poem-a-Day April 5, 2008; Poem-a-Day April 14, 2008; and Poem-a-Day April 2, 2009.