Creative Writing in the Digital Age has been significantly influenced by social media posts and text messages...This workshop focuses on micropoetry. It is the last of 3 workshops and includes information + role models and activities.

1. CREATIVE WRITING IN
THE DIGITAL AGE – U3A
Part 3
MICROPOETRY IN MOTION
David Starzynski @sfourstarz 25.10.23
Falling leaves
pretend they're butterflies

2. MEANING OF
MICROPOETRY
Micropoetry is ‘small poetry’ that secretly
offers a mental challenge.
Twitter and Instagram are favoured social
media platforms for publicising
micropoetry.
Novelist W. G. Sebald was the first person
who used the term “Micropoem” in his
book ‘Unrecounted’. Micropoetry has no
set rules except most micropoems are
written within 150 characters.
*There is no regular rhyme, but
undercurrent rhythms and music may be
scattered through the micropoem to
enhance its appeal.

3. USING PROMPTS FOR
MICROPOETRY
My name is________________
Today I feel like___________________
Sometimes I am___________________
Sometimes I am_____________
But always I am_____________
I ask the world______________
And the answer is______________________
Of all the children's poems that have come from my viral
poetry prompts, this one by a Ukrainian ten-year-old has
stopped me in my tracks. Her mother, who has been
schooling her at home during air-raid alerts, translated
this & sent it to me."
--Joseph Fasano

4. ANOTHER
RESPONSE TO
FASANO’S
GUIDED
MICROPOETRY
PROMPT

5. USING EMERGING
MICROPOETRY FORMATS
- What is a haiku?
A haiku is a short, unrhymed poem. It generally has a 3-line,
17-syllable format. Traditionally, a haiku depicts a snapshot
moment in time – without using metaphors, similes or
hyperbole explicitly. Not even grammatically complete
sentences are required.
The 3 lines usually follow:
Line 1 – topic or subject
Line 2 – descriptive feature/s
Line 3 – reflective, challenging, even surprise
perspective
*The traditional form of Japanese haiku was perfected by
Matsuo Basho in the 17th century but not called haiku till
the 19th century…The digital age has seen an outpouring of
haiku in English on social media. *** A picture +
embedded haiku = haibum
Many English poets lean on the 5-7-5 syllable format. That
is not the only option, but it is a beginning. Sometimes 4-3-

6. HAIKU EXAMPLE
deep moods
silently bathe the sands
an anxious light
- Gemma Wiseman
Rosebud Beach
on the Mornington
Peninsula

7. HAIKU (or SENRYU?) EXAMPLE
feet dreams
a special shoe for the soul
fitted with wings
#senryu - Gemma Wiseman @AuraGem
Oct.24
NOTE: This is a haiku but could be
called a senryu because it’s a human
snapshot. But wings could suggest
some Nature element…
A haiku tends to include some
reference to Nature…
If in doubt call it a haiku. A senryu is a
subset of haiku.

8. SENRYU EXAMPLE
confronting
a numberplate name
with attitude
car travelling on the Nepean Highway,
Mornington Peninsula...

9. HAIBUN EXAMPLE – Gemma Wiseman

10. WHAT IS A TANKA?
A tanka is similar to a haiku. Both are unrhymed
and unpunctuated.
A haiku has 3 lines but a tanka has 5.
Just as an English haiku does not strictly follow the
5-7-5 format, neither does an English tanka strictly
follow the 5-7-5-7-7 format...
Go with the flow; follow your gut feeling...

11. TANKA EXAMPLE
celestine moment
when the soul grows weary
of tracing patterns and
following drummers' footprints
and welcomes lightning
- Gemma Wiseman

12. Another Tanka Example
old empty gaol cells
tiered above cold-stained
flaggings
but I wonder if fears
are locked in
or locked out
- Gemma Wiseman
*Inside Old Melbourne Gaol, Victoria

13. What is a Monostich? +
examples
A Monostich is a single-line poem which
expresses a complete thought. It may be part of a
larger poem and stand as a one-line stanza OR it
may be a stand-alone stanza…
Sometimes novelists use a monostich under the title
page of their novel….like a sub-heading…
Examples
after the reign of winds...the rains
- Gemma Wiseman
And the single string of the sea trumpets
- Guillaume Apollinaire