One word line poems

Welcome to my 2020 National Poetry Month Project
See My Last 10 Poetry Projects HERE

Each day of April 2020, I will share three things:

• A dice roll of three word dice
• A video explaining one poetic technique titled POEMS CAN… You can also find these at Sharing Our Notebooks as part of my ongoing Keeping a Notebook project
• A poem inspired by one or more of the dice words and the technique

Here are All of This Month’s Poems:

And now, for today’s words! 

Day 20 Words

Thank you to Heinemann for giving away a copy of my book POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES each week of April. I will draw names from the previous week each Thursday evening at 11:59pm, and I will announce a winner each Friday. Please leave a way to contact you in your comment as if I cannot contact you easily, I will choose a different name. This week’s winner is named atop the post.

If you would like to learn more about other National Poetry Month projects happening throughout the Kidlitosphere, Jama has rounded up many NPM happenings over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.  Happy National Poetry Month 2020.

Antoinette and Glorious Meet Sonata

Photo by Amy LV

Please share a comment below if you wish.day 

A monostich, according to Wikipedia, as good a place as any to start, is a poem which consists of a single line. It goes on to attempt to define the form: A monostich has been described as ‘a startling fragment that has its own integrity’ and ‘if a monostich has an argument, it is necessarily more subtle.’ A monostich, it continues, could be also titled; due to the brevity of the form, the title is invariably as important a part of the poem as the line itself. Some one-line poems, we are told, have ‘the characteristics of not exceeding one line of a normal page, to be read as one unbroken line without forced pauses or the poetics of ceasura’, and others having ‘ a rhythm, (as with one-line haiku), dividing easily into three phrases’.

Some examples of monostich (one-line poems) were created by such classic ancient authors as Martial in Latin. According to Edward Hirsh in his  A Poet’s Glossary,   “As the Greek Anthology (tenth century) illustrates, the monostich can be a proverb, an aphorism, an enigma, a fragment, an image, an enigma.” Modern monostich was started in Russia in 1894 when Valery Bryusov published this single line of pretty absurd poetry :

О закрой свои бледные ноги.

(Oh, cover your pale legs.)

The first poet to produce monostich in the modern Western tradition  was Guillaume Apollinaire, who included this poem in his 1913 book Alcools:

Chantre

Et l’unique cordeau des trompettes marines ⁽⁵⁾

(Singer

And the single string of the sea trumpets)

An early English example is a one-line poem without a title by Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962):

‘Skunks,’ the squirrel said, ‘are sent to try us.’

A monostich can, however,  be titled; due to the brevity of the form, the title is invariably as important a part of the poem as the line itself, as in this example from A. R. Ammons:

COWARD

Bravery runs in my family.

Yvor Winters may be well-known as a formal and conservative poet, but he began his career as an experimental poet, influenced by American Indian songs, imagist poetry and Japanese haiku. He told his friend, Kenneth Fields, “I was trying to beat the haiku poets at their own game.” Many of his early poems are examples of monostich. A sample is included below. More are available on the Yvor Winters Brief Poems post.

John Ashbery has been attracted to the monostich in two of his collections.  In A Wave (1984) he has a poem or, more likely, a sequence of individual and individuised poems called “37 Haiku” . Of more interest to me are a few monostiches with capitalised titles contained in an earlier collection, As We Know (1979). Samples from both collections are included below.

William Matthews’ collection, An Oar in the Old Water (1976) contains a few poems in the monostich form that are witty and bounce off their titles. See below.

Allen Ginsberg, in the mid-1980′s, created his own version of the monostich as a response to the Japanese form, the haiku. He called these poems American Sentences. If haiku involved seventeen syllables down the page, he reasoned, American Sentences would be seventeen syllables across the page. It was his attempt, successful at times, to “Americanize” a Japanese form. Like (rough) English approximations of the haiku, American Sentences work closely with concision of line and sharpness of detail.  Unlike its literary predecessor, however, it is compressed into a single line of poetry and often included a reference to a month and year (or alternatively, a location) rather than a season. Some of his more interesting examples are posted below.

Ian McBryde, an avant-garde, Canadian-born poet who lives in Melbourne, Australia, has a collection called Slivers (2005) which consists almost entirely of one-line poems. See below for a few examples.

Whether a textless poem, a poem with a title and no text, can be called a monostich is a moot point. I have come across some interesting examples and include them in a final, separate section below. Jane Hirshfield calls hers – “My Silence” – an ellipsis poem. There’s a small lineage of poems that are only title … It’s a form that wants sparing usage, but my poem was genuinely, honestly written. It holds an unsayable grief. Its invisible ink depends on the reader recognizing that the whole book is the context for that silence.

Monostich – Martial

2.73

Quid faciat volt scire Lyris; quod sobria; fellat.

Lyris wants to know what she is doing; the same thing she does when sober; sucking dick.

***

7.98

Omni,  Castor, emis:  sic fiet, ut omnia vendas.

You buy everything, Castor. This way you’ll end up selling everything.

***

8.19

Pauper videri Cinna vult; et est pauper.

Cinna wants to seem poor and he is.

______

Other translations of this one-line poem and other translations of Martial are available on the Bedside Lamps – Brief Poems by Martial post.

Monostich – Yvor Winters

Winter Echo

Thin air! My mind is gone.

***

Spring Song

My doorframe smells of leaves.

***

God of Roads

I, peregrine of noon.

***

Noon

Did you move, in the sun?

Monostich – John Ashbery

THE CATHEDRAL IS

slated for demolition.

***

I HAD THOUGHT THINGS WERE GOING ALONG WELL

But I was mistaken.

***

OUT OVER THE BAY THE RATTLE OF FIRECRACKERS

And, in the adjacent waters, calm.

***

WE WERE ON THE TERRACE DRINKING GIN AND TONICS

When the squall hit.

These four poems are from As We Know  (1979)

***

from 37 HAIKU

Night occurs dimmer each time with the pieces of light smaller and squarer

A blue anchor grains of grit in a tall sky sewing

The wedding was enchanted everyone was glad to be in it

Monostich – William Matthews

Sleep

border with no country

***

“To Thine Own Self Be True”

As if you had a choice

***

Premature Ejaculation

I’m sorry this poem’s already finished

***

Physics

Is death curved, like the universe?

***

Silence

All bells hate their clappers

***

Snow

The dead are dreaming of breathing

Monostich – Allen Ginsberg

Tompkins Square Lower East Side N.Y.

Four skinheads stand in the streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella.

***

Taxi ghosts at dusk pass Monoprix in Paris 20 years ago.

***:

Crescent moon, girls chatter at twilight on the bus ride to Ankara.

***

Put on my tie in a taxi, short of  breath, rushing to meditate.

***

That grey-haired man in business suit and black turtleneck thinks he’s still young.

***

Rainy night on Union Square, full moon.  Want more poems? Wait till I’m dead.

Monostich – Ian McBryde

White noise carries too many messages.

***

Night gathers across the river.

***

Relax. I kept my word, burned the negatives.

***

Memories of the bomb still mushroom within us.

***

Somewhere in Texas, farmhouses are burning.

***

I have climbed inside Siberia, and now await you.

***

Hours later, the ashes stirring by themselves.

***

There are more than fourteen stations of the cross.

***

Ravens outdate us, but we still forget.

Monostich – Assorted Examples

Down the long desolate street of stars.

T. E. Hulme

***

The bloom of the grape has gone.

T. E. Hulme

***

COWARD

Bravery runs in my family.

A. R. Ammons

***

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Ernest Hemingway

***

EPIDEMIC

Streamers of crepe idling before doors. 

Charles Reznikoff

***

APHRODITE VRANIA

The ceaseless weaving of the uneven water. 

Charles Reznikoff

***

Someone I tell you will remember us.

Sappho (translated by J. V. Cunningham)

***

HILL

Top

Ian Hamilton Finlay

***

LOST

my lost lamb lovelier than all the wool.

Michael Longley

***

SIESTA OF A HUNGARIAN SNAKE

s sz sz SZ sz SZ sz ZS zs Zs zs zs z

Edwin Morgan

***

WILTED TULIPS

split little puppet pulpits tilted spilling dew

Craig Dworkin

***

Now I love you again because of these roosters

Ron Padgett

***

If only you knew how to ignore me.

Ron Padgett

The clanking and wanking of Her Majesty’s Prison.

Gavin Ewart

***

THE LOVER WRITES A ONE-WORD POEM

You!

Gavin Ewart

***

A PERSON

She’s mean and full of minge-water.

Gavin Ewart

***

SCATTER

All that’s left of coherence.

Robert Creeley

***

3 Minims

EPITAPH ON A SCHOOL OF FICTION

They wrote about what they knew. It didn’t take long.

SPRING

Bees to the Flowers, Flies to Shit.

A LONG FAREWELL

Goodbye, said the river, I’m going downstream.

Howard Nemerov

***

ELEGY

 Who would I show it to

W. S. Merwin

***

CELL PHONE BITCH SLAP

The end of the world may require some lifestyle changes

Joel Dailey

***

a dixie cup floats down the Nile

Cor van den Heuvel 

***

University Days

this book has been removed for further study

Tom Raworth

***

8.06pm June 10 1970

poem

Tom Raworth

***

FOUND

These sleeping tablets may cause drowsiness.

Peter Reading

***

t w i l i g h t b l u e & p a l e g r e e n l e a v e s e v e r y w h e r e s c e n t o f w a t e r m e l o n s

Anita Virgil

**

LOSER

He was at the airport when his ship came in.

Joe Brainard

shadows darkening three-sevenths of her face in sunlight

Elizabeth Searle Lamb

***

Forgive these words, they are not birds.

Cora Brooks

***

GHOST STORY

‘Listen hard enough and you wake the dead.’

Mark Granier

***

after the garden party the garden

Ruth Yarrow

***

Sea kelp observed at Makara Beach, on the day of Samuel Beckett’s death, 22 December 1989

murmurabilia

Gregory O’Brien

***

blue metals fastening the air dragonflies

John W. Sexton

***

ON HUMMINGBIRDS

LINKS

Camille Martin’s interesting and informative article on The Humble Monostich from her Rogue Embryo post.

Some monostich from Yvor Winters on the Brief Poems site.

“Short Poems: Mini, Micro and Nano” from the Illustrated Poetry blog.

“From one line poems to one line haiku” on the Simply Haiku site.

Paul E. Nelson’s site, created to present and foster a poetic form created by Allen Ginsberg, known as American Sentences.

Reading, Writing, and Self-care in strange times.

The kids are (finally) asleep. The family, the healthy food, the shifting, migrating career, school, and simply staying sane.  You’ve done the impossible. Again. It’s time to stop being superhuman and have some me-time. 

And for those of us who live and breathe stories and adventures of the written word? For those of us who write, read and find refuge in our languages?  Well, there are few things more soothing than getting lost in a book.  Or in a story you are writing. . .

Something small, something informal. Something just for you.  It hardly matters. What matters is the way you feel when the world stops and it’s just you and your creation. 

And one of my favorite writing techniques is the incredibly simple (and yet so wonderful) one-line poem.  Especially, one-line ‘found’ poems.  

What’s a one-line poem and how can you ‘find’ one?

A one-line poem is just what it sounds like: 

• Take one sentence, 

• play with it, 

• snip out extra words, 

• add juicy little details from real life, 

• play with the line breaks until a poem emerges.

Here’s an example of a one-line poem I wrote from a line I loved in a book…

I remember
holding my first
when he was a baby, how happy
he was a white basket, fresh
rice cakes on New Year’s —
soft as warm
dough.

— One-line poetry adapted from a line from the novel Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

One-line poetry: you can do this.

One-line poetry is such a soothing and relaxing ritual. And yes, as life often has it, a habit that’s good for your life? Is also good for your writing. 

What I love about this habit? It’s one line. One.  

You can do it. You can do it tired or scared or in the face of uncertain times. And because you really can do it? It has the power to turn into habit. 

The tiny, beautiful rituals that change us as writers (and people) forever.  

Why found poetry is great for your writing…in any language.

So many of us here write, read, live and love in more than one language.  We may be more comfortable in some of them…less so in others.  

It is a quick and lovely way to plunge yourself into language and then take all of those beautiful words you’ve been reading and relishing…and see that you can use them too. 

Sometimes, I write in French just because the words seize me and I want to. A poem comes, it happens to be in French…there it is.

But when I write a ‘found poem’ in French? I push myself into uncharted new territory.

And if you try this in your native language with writing you find astounding, or beautiful, or otherwise breathtaking?  You will push yourself into new territory there as well. 

Isn’t that what writing is? The quest to always see and find something new in your words? Whatever language you are using?

Where to look for one-line poems?

In any and every book you are reading (like the example above). This has become such a habit of mine that I often spot poetry in novels, non-fiction. 

And once you see poetry?  You never stop seeing it. Poetry is everywhere…(Psst. Think you only like writing prose? If you blog or write online, there is something beautiful about knowing when to stop an idea, when to break a line…when to leave out a word, or add a delicious detail.)

In the paper. You’re probably reading the news a lot lately. I know I am.  But here is a chance to look into the stories and find beauty, forge meaning.  How do you think your writing would change if you did that?  How do you think you would change? 

Here’s one I wrote on Sands from the Sahara from a newspaper article in French. 

In your own words. In your journal or on your blog. One of my favorite writing habits? Going back over my own writing from time to time. You’ll find things in there you can’t even believe you wrote. And then? You can play with your words until they are poetry.  

If you write a found poem? Be sure to link back to the reading that inspired you.

You don’t have to publish your work, but if you do, be sure to credit the source you are citing and link back to it. You are basically quoting someone else’s work. So just make that clear, share your process, and give credit where credit is due.

In fact, you might be helping someone discover a great book, story, or author you’ve just read…

Is writing something that gets you through? 

I’d love to hear your favorite, go-to writing or reading habit.  Tell me all about it in the comments. 

And if you’d like to stay in touch (and get started with a free creative journaling prompt) you can sign up for the newsletter here.

And if you’re interested in more creative ways to keep your words flowing and use your reading as inspiration for your writing, check out my piece on Blackout and Collage.

Photo Credit: Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash

Welcome to Day 2 of the November Open Write. If you have written with us before, welcome back. If you are joining us for the first time, you are in the kind, capable hands of today’s host, so just read the prompt below and then, when you are ready, write in the comment section below. We do ask that if you write, in the spirit of reciprocity, you respond to three or more writers. To learn more about the Open Write, click here.

Our Hosts

Kim Johnson, Ed.D., lives in Williamson, Georgia, where she serves as District Literacy Specialist for Pike County Schools. She enjoys writing, reading, traveling,camping, and spending time with her husband and three rescue schnoodles – Boo Radley (TKAM), Fitz (F. Scott Fitzgerald), and Ollie (Mary Oliver).  You can follow her blog, Common Threads: patchwork prose and verse, at www.kimhaynesjohnson.com. 

Kyle Vaughn is the author of Calamity Gospel (forthcoming from Cerasus Poetry, 2023), The Alpinist Searches Lonely Places (Belle Point Press, 2022), and Lightning Paths:  75 Poetry Writing Exercises (NCTE Books, 2018), and is the co-author/co-photographer of A New Light in Kalighat (American Councils for International Education, 2013).   His poems have appeared in journals such as The Journal, A-Minor, The Boiler, Drunken Boat, Poetry East, Vinyl, the museum of americana (2022 Best of the Net nomination), and The Shore (2021 Pushcart Prize nomination).  He teaches English and is the Director of the Writing Center at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Find him at  www.kylevaughn.org / twitter: @krv75 / insta:  @kylev75

Inspiration

In his book Lighting Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, Kyle Vaughn encourages writers to explore the power of a one-word poem. He describes the process of distilling favorite poems or lines down to one word to create one-word poems.  Orlando White says, “The process of writing a one–word poem on the page involves playfulness, along with the willingness to take risks with imagination —much like a toddler who scribbles letters for the first time on paper, using the crayon to draw what a word might look like, and creating language outside the boundaries of standard writing.” (Play and Imagination: On the One-Word Poem by… | Poetry Foundation) This form may seem simple, but it could prove to be one of the most challenging forms of poetry we ever write.  Let’s try! 

Process

The interplay between the title and one word can provide context, illumination, and clarification, emphasizing the importance of title in poetry.  The title can be as long as you wish. Write a one-word poem.  You may choose to read a favorite poem and then let it simmer down to one distilled word, or you may write one without another poem driving yours.  No need for rhyme scheme, either!  🙂 

Kim’s Poem

Books, Runways, and Conversations

Portals

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe.