At the end of December, I discovered a new form, the minison:
A mini sonnet. The only “rule” is that the poem is 14 letters long. Wow. Discovered The Minison Project and went down a rabbit hole.
rabbit hole trip (14 letters):
begin here: Issue 0 of the zine
go deeper here: The Minison Zine
get your bearings here: The Minison Project
find other examples here: corkwood blossom and the fourteen ghosts
fall further here: Seymour Mayne – Hail: 14 word Sonnets
a few favorite minisons:
fourteen ghosts
between the snow
nonstop farting
about aboutness
a favorite 14 word sonnet:
DECEMBER FLIGHT/ Seymour Maynes
These
starlings
swerve
in
flocks,
turning
their
frantic
wings
towards
the
sun’s
slanting
light.
So much fun! I could see these as being great for playing around with words, experimenting, and finding better words for describing a run or a swim. What could I say about my swim today?
- butterfly hurts
- winter swimming
- flip turn fiasco
- leaking goggles
- staring at Rosie
- I only see orange
When I have more time, I’d like to try these out more. Maybe suggest them in my class?! note: I am!
As I begin writing this monthly challenge entry on January 26th, I’ve decided to do this: Return to all of my entries for this month and turn them into minisons. Right after learning about this form, I tried it out for a few days, then I got busy with other things, like prepping for my class. Now, as I try to put together a brief description for my class about minisons, I thought I’d return to them and try them out more.
a minison experiment
more muted magic
bare leg bravery
nervous fat tire
all of it strange
emptied of geese
quiet leaf waltz
forgotten river
remembered bird
opened the doors
a kid a sled a hill
a being shadowed
the frozen falls
drumroll please
my doppelgänger
eggs bacon toast
the color orange
impending gloom
heavy snow today
treadmill trail
indoors outside
indecisive snow
a snow wall climb
acting like sand
crows > bluejays
not all, Sheldon
some car caution
clunk clang bang
jan 7 (this one was hard!)
100 percent snow
a moon marvelin’
leaking goggles
aqua jogger chat
running in place
here body is boat
bodies language
jan 10: a sonnet in 14 words
A
quiet
gray
day.
Dreamy
disconnected
alone
but
not
lonely
sinking
in
soft
snow.
ice froze the bus
“It’s so icy that the city suspended metro transit buses for a few hours.”
The
sound
of
a
congress
of
crows
cawing
furiously
echoes
through
the
empty
alley.
the skier as omen
a blue blur block
screaming sleds
scraping shovel
misplaced smoke
a roaming shadow
The
paved
path
was
almost
all
lake
with
a
side
strip
of
sheer
ice.
Two
young
boys
shirtless
shoeless
and
in
sweatpants
run
a
mile
around
the
track.
snow fell in pool
water became air
one swimmer flew
not quite a dream
a daddy long legs
a stalking cough
2 rooting robins
pair of dead moms
love boat’s lido
wrong door opens
sled with no snow
monotony —
the
same
gray
sky
same
gray
river
same
set
of
runners
seen
twice.
What could it be?
me and my mystery
one white wonder
no answer needed
my body as tether
I talk to the wind
a knee says hello
a bike with Emily
o to be satisfied!
I learn to listen
forgotten shoes
unseen swimmers
80 year-old eyes
vision failures
fan of flip turns
cold compromise
room with no view
the dust buddies
trip to the trash
my sad gate sings OR my sad gait sings
Sharp
wind
cutting
air
brittle
paths
too
many
layers —
Today
I
am
Ms.
Uncongeniality.
some thoughts
As I did more of these 14 letter or 14 word “poems” I began to see their value for enabling me to give more attention to what I noticed and how I initially wrote about it. Minisons were a great way to practice condensing ideas and observations. And, they were often a lot of fun, allowing me to play around more with words and ideas. The point was not to compose brilliant poems, but to let go and open up. As an added bonus, some of them generated useful, pithy summaries.