An American sentence
Crime among Israeli Arabs continues claiming lives daily.
What’s an ‘American Sentence’?
Allen Ginsberg, inventor of the American Sentence, felt that the haiku didn’t work as well in English. Ginsberg decided to remove the line structure of the haiku, maintaining the requirement of 17 syllables total. He felt that removing the line count freed the American Sentence up for the idiosyncrasies of English phonemes.
The requirements:
- Composed in one line;
- Syllabic, 17 syllables;
- Condensed, written with no unnecessary words or articles;
- Complete sentence or sentences;
- Includes a turn or enlightenment.
P.S. Shabbat Shalom!
I’m offline for the Jewish Sabbath for ~25 hours from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. I look forward to reconnecting with you soon!
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
The picture you chose made me expect a discussion of religion.
–Uh… I accidently wrote a haiku in the first line– But the bloody hands made my thoughts go directly to stigmata. However, I have thought about ignoring the 5-7-5 structure of haiku, but I also like being forced to accommodate the fixed structure. It often forces me to come up with better words than my initial choices. Awesome stuff. You always get me thinking.
Richard, I don’t know why… but I’ve really become attached to the ‘American Sentence’… It really works for me 🙂
(but I continue to experiment with other forms too!)
All best,
David
I am sure it does. Every form has something to teach. I hadn’t even heard of the ‘American Sentence’ before today. But I used to use twitter back when it was only 140 characters. I remember it forcing me to condense to get my point across. I imaging the ‘American Sentence” to be similar. I need to give it a try.
I wonder if the ‘American Sentence’ is like the ‘Belgium Waffle’ of the ‘French Fry’ where it is only known outside the country it is named after.
Nope. It was created by a very famous American poet.
I just tried one, and Ginsburg is right. It doesn’t feel anything like a haiku. But somehow familiar.
That is assuming that ‘American’ means ‘USA’ and not ‘American Continent.’ –Oh, egocentrism my only friend.
And those powerful words deserve
Shabat Shalom David! 💕
❤ Cindy ❤
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Serious….? Sounds nice. Btw here’s my first pair of waltz waves, inspired by you 😀
https://theforgersoffantasy.art.blog/2021/10/02/humanor-alien/
Nice = terrible, I assume?
I think you got it just right 😀
👍 Q. 👍
yes – and I’d be interested to see how as a poet you deal with serious matters, you know- the show – not tell side of things. Shabat Shalom.
Thinking about that already…
WOW! One sentence says it all. And the picture is powerful. Bravo David! ❤
☺️💝 Filipa 💝☺️
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