There is a poetry exercise that involves taking a page of a book, or a newspaper article, or other written material and “excising” or blacking out everything except the words of a poem that remain. It’s like carving away at a block of wood until you reveal the figure inside. It can be a fun and surprising process to learn what concise insights come out of a potentially long and boring article. The final poem topic may or may not be related to the original article; you may end up with something entirely different.
In the process of writing my book, I had some old double-spaced printed versions that stacked up a couple of inches high. We cut the pages into bits of scrap paper, the perfect size for making grocery lists. One day my son and his girlfriend pulled out the pile of printed scrap paper and started crossing out words. They ended up with a number of pretty cool micro-poems.
If you’ve read my book that generated the scrap paper (Riding Lessons, Things I Learned While Horsing Around), you might be able to recognize which stories the phrases came from. I must admit it’s a bit weird to see that some of the original meaning is still retained at about 1/100th of the length. Maybe I use too many words… In contrast, others of the micro-poems were more philosophical.
From their total of 20 micro poems (which is such a lovely round number), I provide six of my favorites below.
1 Once upon a time, I had All the daylight Saddle, good Horsey necessities. Then I got Mac And said I wasn’t catching naps. 2 Miles apart To meet It hurt bad. But I ignored it, Jumped To the other. 3 Can do things Like flying a moment on Controlled precise movements. 4 My friend Her daughter, Ponies, and Loving Suffered through The same summer Injured once Spent time. 5 Things were Very Crisis-oriented I was worried, it was still Horses. 6 Great Speed and strength Pegasus Power and speed.
Michelle Eames 