National Poetry Month 2020: April 17 — Shiny Fish
Eucalyptus leaves shimmer in morning wind: a school of shiny fish.
American Beat Poet Alan Ginsberg came up with the idea of American Sentences: an American sentence is like a haiku in that it has 17 syllables but it’s not three lines in a stanza but one line. As a haiku offers an image that generates emotion and conveys a moment in time, the best Sentences do more than just offer a sentence in 17 syllables. I learned about American Sentences from Paul E. Nelson who I met at the Taos Poetry Circus in 2000; my friend who turned me on to the Baudelaire quote above I also met at Taos. According to Paul, the key to writing a good American Sentence comes from Ginsberg’s notion that poets are people who notice what they notice. He has been writing one a day since January 1, 2001. Learn more about American Sentences and how to write good ones from Paul here.
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