Five Finger Exercises

A while back I'd blogged about people writing fifty-five word stories and how I thought that was too easy. Now it seems someone's come up with the idea of writing fifty-five word poems, so figured I'd try my hand at it at as well.

Here are three fifty-five word poems:

i)

A poem in fifty-five words
You say.

Why fifty-five?
I wonder.
Why not sixty?
That way we could usurp the clock face,
Make time a part of our calculations.

You shake your head.
Fifty-five.
You insist.

Very well.
I sit at my desk
Sharpening words like pencils
Counting one
For every year of my life.

ii)

I strip phrases from this poem
The way the Fall,
Impatient of poetry,
Tears leaves from summer branches.

Will beauty survive
The death of its colours?

All that remains
Of the poem I meant to write
Is the shorn defiance of these lines
Rising like branches
To where
Your understanding waits,
Treacherous as a sky.

iii)

A fifty-five word poem
Ain’t easy, you know.
No time for slow
Introductions, no lengthy proems,
You can’t to-and-fro ‘em
That way; you gotta make it flow
Right from go –
You gotta show ‘em.

Better recheck it
To make sure
You’ve got the right amount;
You’re no Becket
Just an amateur
Writer who can count.