Bite sized poetry

[alee_grrl]

I love the variety of forms and lengths in poetry. From epics to limericks, there is a length perfect for every occasion. Sometimes you want to immerse yourself in a poetic story, and sometimes you just have time for a short snippet. Little bite-sized poems can be tremendously fun to write. With a little bit of time, a splash of inspiration, a thesaurus (I find them helpful at least), and a quick decision regarding form (metered, unmetered, etc.), you can have a little nugget of poetry. This bits can be visually inspiring, humorous, insightful--just like their longer brethren. These forms are also great for collaboration, which is a fun game of playing off each others words. For some great examples of collaborative poetry here on DW, check out dreamwidth_haikai. Since I'm doing short forms today I've included two poems. The first one is a short bit of blank verse inspired by looking at the railroad tracks and the house I live in one summer evening when the power had just gone out. The second is a haikai (thanks to jjhunter for turning me onto that particular form) that resulted from brain overload during a particularly stressful class this semester (dry and/or silly humor is one of my stress outlets). This will be my last post for the week. It's been a blast hosting!

Haunted

silhouette trees against a darkening sky-
a house broods empty on a hill. lonely rails glint
silver in the dimming light-
everything looks haunted in the gloaming.


Braaaiiiinnnnssss (a law school haikai)

Print swirls across blank
page, energy and knowledge
seep out as you type;

eyes glaze over. Yes, zombie
brief eats your brains as you type.

Comments

[lilmoka]

I love the zombie haikai!
At first I laughed because it's funny, but the more I think about it, the scarier it seems. Something that extracts knowledge from your brain and leaves you zombie-like? So delightfully creepy ( *____*)b

[alee_grrl]

Wheee! So glad you found it both humorous and creepy. Thanks for the feedback. :D

Also glad to see I'm not the only person who uses delightful and creepy in the same sentence. One of my friends thought that turn of phrase was an odd one.

[lilmoka]

You're very welcome! :D :D

I love being creeped out, it's fun! Well, except when it's late at night and you're scared to look away from the screen because someone's going to kill you nao XD

[alee_grrl]

Lol. I'm the same way. If you like delightfully creepy stuff check out the author Nina Kiriki Hoffman. A lot of her work fits into that category. Some of Charles de Lint's stuff does too. :D

[lilmoka]

OMG, RECS! *writes down the names*

Thank you, I'll definitely look for their work <3

[jjhunter]

Just dropping in quick (must keep veggies from burning as they roast in oven!) to say a.) gloaming = <3 ! and b.) I agree, the second haikai is most fabulous excellent. I might have to send it to a friend of mine who's heading off to law school after her contract's up next year. So perfect.

In short, the veggies salute you! And so glad to have someone else who will play with me re: haikai! <3

[alee_grrl]

Yay for roasted veggies! Sounds yummy. I love the word "gloaming," it's just so fun to say. Glad you love the second haikai. Please feel free to share it as you like.

[aldersprig]

Oh, I love these! And I love bite-sized poetry for those days when you want to read something and your attention span is only 100 words long (Other people have those days, don't they?)

[alee_grrl]

I definitely have days where my attention span is only 100 words long. :) So glad you enjoyed these.

[aldersprig]

*grin* This community is inspiring me to think about writing poetry again.

[alee_grrl]

Yay!

[jjhunter]

\o/

Dwarf Stars Award

[ysabetwordsmith]

If you like short-short poetry, check out the Dwarf Stars Award for speculative poems that are 10 lines or less.

Re: Dwarf Stars Award

[alee_grrl]

Awesome. Thanks for the rec!

[(Anonymous)]

Zombie brief! Oh so very very true! Love it. :-D Have sudden urge to draw little cartoon of zombie brief eating brains.

~Ria

[alee_grrl]

:D A cartoon would be awesome!

[lynnoconnacht]

Oh, my goodness! That zombie haikai is brilliant! (And incredibly chilling and creepy and lilmoka already pointed out.)

And the first is beautiful too. ^_^ Just in a different way. It's a lot quieter and atmospheric.

And I'm glad to know for certain I'm not the only one who scribbles short poetic pieces about classes! XD

[alee_grrl]

Thank you! Sometimes short poetic pieces about classes are the only way to stay (relatively) sane. XD

[lynnoconnacht]

Indeed! Although the piece that helped keep me sane most is actually closer to prose poetry and significantly longer than this. (I wanted it to be a poem, though. It just wouldn't play along.)

I should see if I have some of those old pieces to share just for amusement's sake, but they're nowhere near as good as yours. ^-^

[alee_grrl]

Aw, thank you. I would love to read your poems. It's always nice to see how others view things. One thing I know from experience is that we are always our own worst critics.

[lynnoconnacht]

*blush* Thank you. I've only got the one up right now (and it comes paired with lots and lots of commentary on the revision process), I'm afraid.

And yes we certainly are our own worst critics, but none of my shorter pieces have that kick your haikai has. At first it's mostly cute and humorous, but then the meaning sinks in more clearly and wow. As lilmoka said, the more you think about it, the creepier it gets and... so powerful. Mine are usually straight up observations, little moments caught in words. (Which all have their own beauty too, I'm sure, but they're different. I couldn't do something like you've done here. ^_^)

[alee_grrl]

A lot of that kick was accidental. When I started I was very focused on the humorous image. I'm not sure I realized until after it was written that it was insidiously creepy. Of course considering my favorite writers, I shouldn't be too surprised that it would turn out that way. :)

[lynnoconnacht]

*laughs* Even so. It works incredibly well. ^-^

And I lied. I have a small (flawed!) englyn proest dalgron posted here on poetree, if you're curious. It's here near the bottom of my poetry host introduction if you're curious. But please don't feel obliged to read it. It's just you said you'd like to see some of mine. ^_^

[alee_grrl]

I'd forgotten I'd never commented on that little poem. I'd read it and enjoyed it, but forgot to comment. So I just rectified that situation. :)

[lynnoconnacht]

*blush* Thank you. <3 I'm glad you enjoyed it and grateful you let me know you'd read it. ^_^