the american sentence

The American Sentence was a poetic form established by Allen Ginsberg. It's like a haiku, but without the line divisions. From my extensive research (prowling through a few websites I googled ...), apparently Ginsberg liked the idea of a haiku in English, but felt that the line divisions turned the creation of a haiku into a process of counting, not creating.

So, the American Sentence is a one-line poem, made up of seventeen syllables. I think I'm going to use this poetic form next week with my grade 11s and 12s, to get them started writing poetry. It's simple and short. And even if it still is a process of counting, it's pretty fun.

It's also particularly useful if you want to sound melodramatic:

The fish you gave me leaped out of his bowl; he died of too much freedom.

Her heart is like a blushing red apple with worms digesting the core.

The night was soft with whispers; the trees melted into their own shadows.

I think it should be fun.