Invitation to the Alphabet Desert

Why I Write Short Poems

An old writer’s hands on an antique tool, complete with ribbon and bell

This is the first post from what I’m calling “the alphabet desert.” My hope is to develop a supportive community of “practicing” poets here.

I intend to post as regularly as possible, which will probably be quite irregularly. I’m not looking for another job. I consider myself retired, which means I can spend my time doing what pleases me without a financial reward. That’s usually writing, painting, playing an easy instrument like ukulele, teaching a handful of people songs I know and love, gardening, exploring or talking.

I’d like to use this newsletter to provide writing prompts to help poets get the words flowing and to support creative work and play. I plan to discuss poetry, and, more specifically, short forms of poetry, which I’ve been practicing for many years.

That brings me to the “desert” part of the name of this newsletter. Sometimes the blank page is as parched as the desert. I live in the desert. So I know that if you look closely and explore a little, everything you need is there. The desert is a beautiful place. It is full of survivors.

Just this morning, a friend who is also an enthusiastic poetry reader (a real gift for any poet!) said, “Isn’t it interesting how 26 letters of the alphabet combine and recombine into meaning and hope and connection and…” Words made of the short alphabet are fully loaded. Like a gun? Maybe. But a harmless gun, one that shoots a flag that has “BANG” printed on it. Perhaps it’s loaded more like an everything bagel. Everything like love and war and quests and victories, uncertainty, depression, babies, cadavers, portraits, the sacred, shades of gray and all the colors beyond the rainbow.

I’ve been writing short poems, like haiku and tanka and others of my own invention, for many years. It helps me use words more efficiently and mindfully. And it is possible to do it every day, as a practice. I think readers are more likely to start reading and actually finish a short poem. Since poetry isn’t really taught in U.S. secondary schools or in most required college freshman English courses, people don’t often know what a poem has to offer. So if I can coax a reader into a short poem, s/he might find something of value there.

I’d like to encourage the posting of poems and responses to poems in this newsletter, too. Like writing a poem, we’ll just start out … and who knows where it might go?

A first letter from the alphabet desert wouldn’t be complete without a short poem. So here’s a playful two-liner, one of the shortest I’ve ever written. It was inspired by a picture I took on the California seacoast:

A picture can be a writing prompt. What do you see? Where does the picture take you?

Please feel free to respond and subscribe.