Twitter: Shakespeare Style

So I've been posting an extended poem under the hashtags #twitter #poetry. It was interesting writing (and I'm sure reading!) a poem in such a fragmented manner, but for those of you who didn't cotton on, it was a sonnet, Shakespearean style. I'm posting the whole thing below for those who couldn't follow or just want to see it as one whole poem. Enjoy!

Twitter: A Sonnet

Here I must conform to limits on space
Where letters count and numbers hope to rise.
My thoughts still seek a vast unending place
That does not submit to shape or size.
They cannot fit in characters so small
Softly typed, a breath to the tempest world.
They speak only barely, if heard at all.
Only when seen are they a flag unfurled.
Yet still I type, my fingers pounding keys
An attempt to harness the things within
But the words do not heed my desperate pleas
Laughing at pride, my original sin.

Doggedly I sit, as day bleeds to night.
Hopeless, I know. What can I do? I write.

Haiku Challenge: Science, Sci-Fi, and Cats

I've been feeling kind of melancholic this week and I think my haiku reflect that. I was also influenced by the latest Margaret Atwood book "MaddAddam" (review to come). So here are this week's haiku.

8/31

Will the future split
between gritty and shiny?
Sci-fi metaphors.

9/3

Sit doing nothing.
Maybe it is a slow healing.
I'll wake when it's through.

9/3

Gathering more words
for my curio cabinet
of better phrases.

9/4

Bypassing the pleebs,
The technocratic elite
splice what's left of life.

9/5

Two cats sleep under
my wingback chair while I write.
There is peace at last.

9/6

My brain's diluted,
lost among the molecules.
Reconstitute me.

Haiku Challenge: History, Politics, and Life in 17 Syllables

This last week or so has been filled with a number of historical and political events. The 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's "I have a dream" speech. Marches across the nation that served as a memory of the suffragists who fought for women's rights to vote and a reminder of how far we still have to go. New kitten drama continues. And Twitter is continuing to serve as a surprising outlet for all of these things.

Here are the haiku's from this last week.

08/20

Haiku - like new thought -

Breathe softly and disappear

without impression.

08/22

Would the solid clank

of a press imprint my words

more firmly than keys?

08/22

One hell of a night.

Pain wracks my head like lightening.

Fucking allergies.

08/24

Alone among friends,

The writer in me panics.

Paper is kinder.

08/26

Nineteenth amendment

Gave women the right to vote.

We should use it now.

08/27

Exhausted, throat-sore

I make my way through darkness

To the ones who wait.

08/27

Mad Men: Where women

are not allowed to play and

nice guys finish last.

08/28

M.L.K. Jr

once had a dream that spoke

to all. Still we dream.

08/30

Life falls short of dreams.

Everything sounds much better

when it's on paper. 

Haiku Challenge: Twitter's Take on Poetry

Recently one of my fellow writers and denizens of Twitter, Alexis Lantgen, inspired me to do something I'd never truly considered before. Use Twitter for more than just 155 character snippets of though. Use it for poetry. And what poetry form could be more appropriate than haiku?

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that uses 17 kanji for one poem, which English speaking poets translated to 17 syllables of 5 then 7 then five again. Traditionally, Haiku were about nature, but that is becoming less common, and let's face it, writing about falling leaves and cherry blossoms is really not my style. Another aspect of haiku is the use of juxtaposition or the "cutting word." Most haiku use imagery or symbols to strike a discordant note in the poem.

Anywho... here are my Twitter haiku from last week.

8/12

You say I'm grown-up,
But sometimes I am a child
who's just pretending.

8/13

Once Ulysses-proud,
Our world fell to the sea gods.
Oceans consume us.

8/14

Four years of laughter,
We celebrate more to come
with a new kitten.

8/16

Late in the evening,
I forget all I've not done
and fall swift asleep.

8/16

Yesterday's haiku
proved itself a lie, false hope.
A night without rest.

8/17

Paralyzing fear
distracts me from my duty.
I submit my work.

8/18

New Sunday morning
Cat chases the new kitten
I wish I still slept


I'm still working on the use of juxtaposition, but it's a nice way to start the morning. Who would have though Twitter could be a tool for poetic expression?

If you're interested in following my forays into the Twitter #haikuchallenge, follow me here, on GraceW_Writer