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NaPoWriMo Day 24: The Simple Truth
A poetry prompt a day for 30 days.

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Table of Contents
Freewrite
With this freewrite, as well as all freewrites, do not put any pressure on yourself to be good. You are simply getting thoughts on the page. You can write in poetry or in prose, but feel free to write poorly, sloppily, redundantly, and with cliches. Now is the time for ideas—we will eventually sculpt those ideas into art.
Freewrite for 8-10 minutes. Make a list of simple truths.
What do I mean by this? I mean sentences that are true. A brief collection of words that speak to something deeper. You can take this literally, like “an octopus has tentacles,” but try to push deeper the further your list goes like “most people desire to do good.”
A Series of Short Poems
“Prayer” by Galway Kinnell
Whatever happens. Whatever
what is is is what
I want. Only that. But that.
“Haiku” by Sonia Sanchez
i count the morning
stars the air so sweet i turn
riverdark with sound.
“Triad” by Adelaide Crapsey
These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow… the hour
Before the dawn… the mouth of one
Just dead.
“Poem Number Two on Bell’s Theorem, or The New Physicality of Long Distance Love” by June Jordan
There is no chance that we will fall apart
There is no chance
There are no parts.
“Poem” by Langston Hughes
(To F. S.)
I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There’s nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began,—
I loved my friend.
“[you fit into me]” by Margaret Atwood
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
“Telemachus' Detachment” by Louise Glück
When I was a child looking
at my parents' lives, you know
what I thought? I thought
heartbreaking. Now I think
heartbreaking, but also
insane. Also
very funny.
Divinations
Aside from concision, what do all of these poems have in common?
They convey something true, even complex, by way of their seeming simplicity. And each poem does it in its own special way. “Prayer” pays close attention to something metaphysical through language that’s traditionally abstract. “Haiku” expresses something beautiful, spiritual even, and invents the word “riverdark” to somehow strike at something rich and soul-felt.
Adelaide Crapsey’s cinquain is all about unexpected juxtapositions; my view of the world changes because of them. June Jordan’s poem has a long title, but the poem earns that title by straddling both physics and poetry. And Langston Hughes’ poem is always a tear-jerker, powerful for its simplicity and repetition.
“[you fit into me]” also leans into the power of surprise, taking a clichéd image and repurposing it into something innocent on the surface, dangerous underneath. “Telemachus’ Detachment” makes me laugh every time I read it.
These poems are all complex by way of their simplicity. They find the way to express something true in as few words as possible.
Short poetry is often a struggle for poets who, myself included, can be rather verbose and intricate in their poems. I’ve written a handful of short poems, and what happened is that I wrote page-spanners, stumbled into a set of lines that were really good, and then realized, oh wait, that is the poem itself.
My way is one approach, but there are plenty of others. Leaning into craft techniques, paying close attention, using science, history, allusions, etc.—these are all possibilities in the poem whose lines are few, whose word counts hardly break a dozen.
Prompt
Write a short poem! By short, I mean a poem under 10 lines, under 25 words. The fewer lines and words, the better—but of course, start by trying to express something true, and go from there. You might write a long poem and cut it down, or you might try to tinker with language the way the above poems do. Just try to express something true.

Jameson: The Talisman of Good Poetry Writing <3