Literature Atlas

How Stories Are Told
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Genre

Micropoetry

Lyric and Short Poetic Forms

Micropoetry is a genre of very short poetic verse that includes tweetku, also called twihaiku or twaiku, and captcha poetry. The modern term arose on the microblogging platform Identica in January 2009 as a blend of microblogging and poetry describing works of 140 characters or fewer, following earlier experiments such as W. G. Sebald's 2004 use of micropoem and the haiku journal tinywords, which began publishing haiku by text message in 2000.

Facts
Notable Example
Simon Brake's winning poem in the May 2009 King's Place Twitter contest judged by Yoko Ono 1
Defining Trait
Fits the most meaning into few characters, often breaking conventional grammar and lexicon 1
Sources
1. Micropoetry (Wikipedia)
  • Examples section
    In order to fit the most meaning into few characters, micropoetry often breaks traditional rules of grammar and lexicon
  • Examples section, King's Place contest
    beneath the Morning Sun, / The city is painted gold, / People move like bees through honey
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.