{"id":137990623,"date":"2025-11-20T10:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/?p=137990623"},"modified":"2025-11-20T10:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:54:18","slug":"reading-too-quickly-for-my-own-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/reading-too-quickly-for-my-own-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Too Quickly for My Own Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Brewer’s prompt<\/a> for November 19 was to “write a six word poem.” I should’ve read farther, but the idea of a six-word poem immediately triggered thoughts of the infamous “six word story” (often misattributed to Hemingway). Aside from that one example, I have yet to see six words that, by themselves, constitute a story. They are barely a sentence or two. Six words might capture a moment or a mood, but they are not a story.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Could six words constitute a poem? Maybe. I usually avoid very short forms. Few poets – and I include myself in this – write them well. We all learned to write haiku in elementary school, but most of us learned it badly. Too often, I think they read like fortune cookies or insipid platitudes or the ubiquitous “inspirational quotations” that are floating around on the internet. But Brewer’s prompt brought out my inner smart-ass. He even offered “extra credit” and if you know me, I’ll fall for the “extra credit” assignment every time. He provided a list of six words and urged us to include at least three. That left only three words to play with, as I originally read the prompt. And so I wrote an “immediate reaction poem.”<\/p>\n

Write a Six Word Poem?<\/h2>\n
See my gnarled squint?\r\nGibberish. No.<\/pre>\n
\n\"A<\/p>\n
\n
After reading Brewer’s example, I realized my error. His “six-word poem” prompt was more like the decades’ worth of prompts from the Creative Copy Challenge<\/a>. I vowed to try again, and the following is the result.<\/p>\n
A Mind Gone to Seed<\/h2>\n
She squints<\/strong> off in the distance\r\ncontemplates the violence\r\nof the tranquil river\u2019s rapids\r\nroiling<\/strong> far below. How bit by bit,\r\na millimeter here or there\r\nit yields. This hard, river-slicked\r\nrock relents, gives way\r\nto bubbles<\/strong>\u2019 joyful dancing.\r\nHe's a cup of summer sunshine\r\nheld in gnarled<\/strong> hands. Gibberish<\/strong>\r\nslips now from his lips like\r\ndandelions<\/strong> gone to seed. She knows\r\nthat it would only take a moment,\r\njust the slightest breeze. She blows.<\/pre>\n
\n\"\"<\/p>\n
\n
Yikes. I hope he’s in a better place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rebelliousness took a dark turn. I guess I should have read more closely and more slowly!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137990626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[],"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[2730,2725,2752],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-137990623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-writing","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-prompt"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 23:34:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137990623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137990623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137990623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137990631,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137990623\/revisions\/137990631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137990626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137990623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137990623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137990623"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=137990623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}