Maybe you’re one of the new poets. Or perhaps you’re one of the old poets writing the new poetry. It could be you’re one of those who’ve been composing it for nearly a decade now. If so, you know all about sms poetry.
If not, then here is something new for you. And here is your opportunity to win a brand new iPod nano. So what’s all this talk about sms poetry?
A definition of sms poetry:
What are SMS Poems? Simply put: it is poetry that fits inside a text message; i.e. poetry that is less than 160 characters long. Text message poems cover the same themes as ordinary poetry like love, friendship, jokes etc. but this time your poem fits inside a standard-size sms.
A couple of websites to help you read some of the sms abbreviations in some of the poems:
The first sms poem ever (written by UK poet Andrew Wilson):
SUMMER DRESSES
weighing less,
folded up,
than tea towels,
on bare legs
and backs,
tanned
from holidays
and fake.
The first published book of sms poetry (a paper book with a cover, also by poet Wilson, not yet for the Kindle or the Nook or the iPad):
An interview with sms poet Wilson (and his answer to a question):
3. Text message poetry, what’s it all about? Is it any different from conventional poetry?
No. If it’s good as a text it’ll be good on paper, and the other way round. The difference is in how you receive it – the message symbol on the phone screen makes you clear your head for a few seconds, gets you ready to receive something new, and that space is just right for a poem. You can be sitting in a train station and get a text message poem about going on a train journey. If it’s a good poem, that can be really powerful
The winning entry of the first sms poetry contest (run by the Guardian):
txtin iz messin,
mi headn’me englis,
try2rite essays,
they all come out txtis.
gran not plsed w/letters shes getn,
swears i wrote better
b4 comin2uni.
&she’s african
by Hetty Hughes, who tells her story here.
All the other winning entries from the contest, reproduced here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2001/may/03/internet.poetry
Your opportunity to win that iPod nano (since you already have an sms device presumably):
- SMS Text Poetry Contest 15
Closing Date 31st October, 2010
(New Beginnings Theme)
After a 3 year break due to life responsibilities, I’ve finally managed to get the chance to refocus on the txt2nite website and to run the SMS poetry contests again. The purpose of the SMS poetry competition is to write a poem that is short enough to fit in a single 160 character mobile phone SMS text message.
The theme of this competition is NEW BEGINNINGS. As long as your poem can be related to new beginnings in some way then it’s acceptable. You can enter as many times as you like but your poems MUST be a maximum 160 characters long (including punctuation and spaces). The first prize is an iPod nano and the deadline is 31st October 2010. Good luck!
You can enter the competition here
http://www.txt2nite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1954
Good Luck
Some advice for composing the poetry, from sms poet Wilson:
Do it on the bus. The best time to write poetry is sitting next to an old lady with her shopping from the market.
A digital magazine where you can find ur sms poetry published or can read others’ poems:
My favorite poem there (from issue Two of OneSixty), by Sarah Davies:
TIRED MORNING
1 room,40 x 20
4 16 people
airfreshnr,fake forest
otsde wndow cypress blows
striplights bare u
hdfones mute songs
no contact, only contract
What’s yours?
Fascinating stuff! I discovered a poem on that website about my alma mater. The observations therein still hold somewhat, though I think less so now than whenever the author might have attended. I actually really like that last poem you include. “no contact, only contract”–simple but so moving, and it sounds a lot like my life right now, unfortunately.
Thanks for sharing the observations. Very short poems have been around for a long while, so I think the sms technology forces or encourages some new dimensions. It really is fascinating that just a few characters can so convey memories, can evoke feelings. Ur use of the emoticon shares much, and I’m sure wd b allwd.
Hi Kurk,
At one time I tended to be impressed by how much people could write about subjects (such as 1000-page commentaries), but these days I tend to prize concision instead. However, trying to say something meaningful in just 160 characters may be taking that ideal a bit too far.
The other issue I have is that I’m not fluent in textspeak, so I didn’t go for those that used it. (I’m afraid that on the odd occasion I do text I still tend to write “proper” English, even down to capitalisation and punctuation.) To be fair, I’d probably say the same of poetry written in other forms of “non-standard” English. I suspect that, for me to enjoy it, poetry has to “speak my language” (or some form that I might aspire to).
Now I’m not being a snob; probably just the opposite. Indeed, the combination of brevity and communication technology reminded me not of some famous sonnet but of Carlene Carter’s “Little Love Letter #1” (although with a reference to fax machines it is perhaps showing its age: the album is from 1993). With some difficulty I resisted the urge to add punctuation.
My answer machine is feelin’ lonely and blue
’Cause it ain’t seen a message in an hour or two
And my fax machine has tears in its eyes
’Cause there ain’t no words burnin’ through its wires
Is it something I did
Is it something I said
Is it something I sang
Or is it something you read
Come clean with me or else instead
I’m gonna wash my hands of you
Hey like Elvis said, “We’re goin’ separate ways”
I’m gonna wash my hands of you
And could anyone be a snob and, at the same time, think that A A Milne’s Pooh books are works of genius? (Although they undoubtedly are.)
But then, as that esteemed poet once said: “… it isn’t Easy, because Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.”
“Hallo, Pooh,” said Rabbit.
“Hallo, Rabbit,” said Pooh dreamily.
“Did you make that song up?”
“Well, I sort of made it up,” said Pooh. “It isn’t Brain,” he went on humbly, “because You Know Why, Rabbit; but it comes to me sometimes.”
“Ah!” said Rabbit, who never let things come to him, but always went and fetched them.
So the reason I don’t write poetry could simply be that I’ve never found where that place is. And the fact that it doesn’t just “come to me” when I’m not looking may be explained by there being too much of Rabbit in me (although I’m much too lazy to be Rabbit).
Of course Pooh was really a philosopher at heart (as perhaps all the great poets are):
On Monday, when the sun is hot
I wonder to myself a lot:
Now is it true, or is it not,
That what is which and which is what?
On Tuesday, when it hails and snows
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.
On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it’s true
That who is what and what is who.
On Thursday, when it starts to freeze
And hoar-frost twinkles on the trees,
How very readily one sees
That these are whose- but whose are these?
On Friday …
* * *
If Rabbit
Was bigger
And fatter
And stronger,
Or bigger
Than Tigger,
If Tigger was smaller,
Then Tigger’s bad habit
Of bouncing at Rabbit
Would matter
No longer,
If Rabbit
Was taller.
But even Pooh could lose the muse:
This warm and sunny Spot
Belongs to Pooh
And here he wonders what
He’s going to do.
Oh, bother, I forget –
It’s Piglet’s too.
Have a good day.
Hi John,
Your interest in concision reminds me of something Robert E. Quinn wrote:
And, I’ll spare you the quotations, but you’re quoting from Winnie the Pooh makes me think of the hilarious spoofs on U.S. English Department academia: the books by Frederick Crews, The Pooh Perplex and Postmodern Pooh.
Unfortunately, I think, children these days are only finding Pooh and his friends in animated cartoons or picture books. The A A Milne’s books are too dense, it seems, for young readers, and we now miss the genius. Fortunately, I believe, the sms technology is finding some richness in the poetry of (mostly young) people. I doubt that will languish anytime soon.
You have a good day too, thanks!
Unfortunately, I think, children these days are only finding Pooh and his friends in animated cartoons or picture books.
In my opinion, the worst thing to happen to Pooh was the copyright being sold to Disney. As far as I’m concerned (and here I may indeed sound like a snob): the characters should look like Shepherd drew them and, in my head at least, they sound nothing like they do in the cartoons.
Of course I’m sure Pooh would have used a mobile phone if he’d had one, and (although he might have needed a “big button” phone) I’m sure he would’ve texted, although whether anyone would have been able to understand the texts is another question. (“You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.”) So I’m certainly not dissing the sms poets.
As regards elegant simplicity, I entirely agree. I doubt, though, that there are any subjects where I qualify as a master, so my explanations are unusually somewhere between the novice and the expert. But I admire elegant simplicity when I see (or hear) it (and hate substitutes from the “form before function” school).
Of course I’m sure Pooh would have used a mobile phone if he’d had one, and (although he might have needed a “big button” phone)
Pooh would’ve certainly left his button gloves undone for that. Which reminds me of that poem, “If I Were A King,” in When We Were Very Young. Of course, we’re not quite sure it’s Winne the Pooh there. A. A. Milne starts his book with a more careful explanation:
Anyway, here’s that poem:
And, to be sure, it loses much and gains some more, when a 159 character sms poem. Dnt ask Hoo txtd: