The Versesmith

I am thrilled to share these five poems that were  published  today on  I Write Her: The Short of It , edited by Susi Bocks. She “ aims to find those poets and writers with something big to say in as few words as possible .”  I wrote three haiku, one tanka, and a short free verse (4/4/4/9) in the style of a haiga .  These forms are usually not given titles, but have been here.  Feathered Messenger  poised on the lamp post raven's keen dark eyes stare down harbinger of news Benny  my house panther snores a big boy once, now wasted spends last days with me   Moon Music sultry summer night cicadas shrill serenade nocturne in moonglow Silent Muse   the poet fails, sobs words have left him, blank paper laying on his desk mock the once great man of verse his muse no longer whispers Portrait of a Nun The new submission cycle for The Short of It will open July 1, 2027. #haiku #tanka #theshortofit #iwriteher #shortpoems...

The I mayo is a 4-line Japanese poem that has 12 syllables in each line. There is a planned pause (caesura)) between the first 7 syllables and the final 5 in each line.  I created those pauses as best I could!  The I mayo was originally written to be sung, but that's not a requirement. Poets have free range on subject matter. I nés  is my name for this painting on canvas I found unrolled in the dirt of a yard sale.  I got it for under $1.00.   She watches out the window, as she often does. Light shines behind her; there's a gap in the curtains. Her vigil began at dawn, it is evening now. Soon she'll sigh, close the gap, and slowly climb the stairs. ©202 6 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

  H ay(na)ku is an  invented form by Eileen Tabios.   3 lines 6 words line 1 - one word line 2 - two words line 3 - three words    H arvey  is the name of the artist, and for lack of any title given I call the painting  H arvey .   H arvey  is a big guy, 24" x 30" from St. Vincent de Paul.  I paid $6.50 for him.  Stop! Your eyes see too much. ©202 6 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

The  G ogyōka  is a modern invention of the Japanese poet Enta Kusakabe (born 1938) and only has two simple rules. It is five lines long. Each line is one phrase.     G reen Pheasant  (referred to as  Pheasant  until the 1920s when publishers used G reen Pheasant  in import titles), original painting by  Sakai Hoitsu, print  c. 1923-1925. This belonged to my paternal grandmother who may have purchased it at G ump's in San Francisco, which was a major importer of Japanese art and woodblock prints. There is a bit more to it along the left, but it had been folded for decades to fit an inappropriate frame.  My green pheasant scratches in the yard. His claws disturb an ant’s next. Seeing me, he approaches. I scatter barley. I  toss mustard greens. ©202 6 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

F ree Verse is poetry f ree from limitations, it does not follow a regular meter or rhyme scheme, poets are free to shape lines freely.  I bought this antique print, F rost Breaking , c.1850s-1880s, in 1969 or 1970 in Portobello Market, London, when I was 13 years old. Fox Terrier wants to be one of the big boys howling at dawn. His strident “yips” bring s laughter to the Huntsman as he mixes their morning pudding.                                                        ©202 6  Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved   (Hounds were usually fed early in the day. The huntsman would prepare a mix called “hound meal” or “pudding,” often boiled grains, meat scraps, and broth.)

An   E levenie  is a short poem with just e leven words in five lines.  It is also called an E lfchen.  " E lf" is German for e leven, and "chen" is a term of endearment and denotes something small.  Each line in an E levenie has two specific requirements.  First, what words are used.  1 - a thought, object, color, etc. (some instructions list this as just a noun) 2 - what does that word in line one do? 3 - where is that word, or how is it? 4 - what do you mean by that? 5 - What is the result?  Second, how many words in each line. 1,2,3,4,1 The E ye of God , or   L’Oeil de Dieu , is not the title Salvador Dali gave this print, however it is the dealer title, or marketing name.  He created it for one of the illustrations in  The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini .  This is not from the book, it's a later print.  While some think " Oh!  A Dali print!  That's valuable! "  Not really....