Short-Form Poetry

Lune 1

(3 lines, syllables: 5, 3, 5)

heirlooms and sun gold
tomatoes
best part of August

TANKA

(5 lines, syllables: 5-7-5-7-7)

procrastination
a form of self sabotage
one of so many
its cousins are denial
perseveration, pretense

overwhelmed people
how did we become this way?
is this inherent
to being alive, sentient
or is it American?

Dodoitsu

(4 lines, syllables: 7-7-7-5)

I have come to understand
the ways we hide from ourselves
tucked into our fantasies
we take on strange roles

so glad I’m not seventeen
when you don’t know who you are
but you pretend that you do
not child, not adult

HAIKU

(3 lines, syllables: 5, 7, 5)

be in the present
I say to myself today,
snow is beautiful

like a spare tire
taken for granted mostly
until there’s a flat

another snowstorm
bring it on, who cares, it melts
soon we’ll be too hot

Fibonacci Sequence

(6 lines, syllables: 1,1,3,3,5,8)

No
No
2-year-old’s
standard chant
imperial child
if they could, they would rule the world

Lune 2

(3 lines, syllables: 3, 5, 3)

the dew point
more difficult than
the wind chill

Butterfly Cinquain

(9 lines, syllables: 2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2)

firstborn
a position
you are just born into
you had no say in the matter
relax
it’s not your fault you took the brunt
of what they did not know
at each stage of
childhood

nothing
is a strange word
after you utter it
the metamorphosis begins:
nothing —
a pronoun, adjective, adverb
made of seven letters
can’t hide that it’s
something

HAY(AN)KU

(3 lines, words: 1, 2, 3)

ambiguity
it’s neither
here nor there

hummingbirds
anxious, determined
never stop moving

Imayo

(4 lines, syllables:12 per line with a break after 7 syllables)

the opposite of insight — stubborn compartments refusal to see clearly — a false protection
we weave elaborate webs — stories we believe
so many ways to feel safe — hiding seems to work

zinnias are Mexican — daisies speak français
cosmos come from Paraguay — snapdragons from Spain
Canadian coneflowers — Japanese dogwood
my house of representatives — beauty everywhere