One-Liners

"Nature serves as the eternal artist of life's portraits lost to time."
- An actual poem

I haven't done a poetry post in a while, and since this is National Poetry Month, well, here it is. However, because so many people are uncomfortable with the concept of writing poetry and the many demands that come with it, I am playing this one a little fast and loose. It will be a shorter post, and it will be about one of the shortest forms of poetry around: Monostich.

I wish I could say I was an expert on the monostich poem, but I can't make that statement. Rather, I was introduced to this form by a fellow writer in the Wednesday workshop I attend. He brought up the subject as a question of, "What's that term for a poem that's only one line?" Sarcastically, I responded, "Slogan." Well, after he took a quick trip to the internet, it turns out that it was, in fact, the monostich - a one-line poem, preferably without pauses, additional clauses or phrases, or diversions. This form is the epitome of the short, sharp usae of words to explain some concept or quickly make a statement about the world. It is usually painfully brief and to the point, boiling out all but the significant bits.

Now, you might think to yourself, "This sounds like a sideways approach to a haiku but without the syllable rules." In some ways you would be correct. Any number of haiku are actually just one idea spread across three lines with a syllable pattern. In fact, if you reread the poem above, you can rewrite it as such:

"Nature serves as the
eternal artist of life's
portraits lost to time."

Voila! It's a haiku (sort of)! Put it back into one continuous line and you are back to a monostich. Same message, same words, different categorization all because of line breaks. It's a simple way to write a poem, with the only real challenge being the demand of distilling it down to the core meaning, without any distractions.

So, my request on this day as a commemoration to National Poetry Month, write one profound sentence. Let it be something that interprets the world in some special way - writing "I am hungry" might be true, but it's not as profound as you might think, even if you are profoundly hungry. Give it a shot, see what happens, and if you are feeling particularly bold, leave it in the comments section (anonymously if you prefer).

Happy National Poetry Month!