Shorts for Today

I think of this as a kind of workout. A chance to keep certain neural networks active and firing. They are peripheral to putting pen to paper for a short or novel, but they are accomplishable and exciting in that brevity. For a while now, I’ve been writing haikus for my daughter. Seasonal and in the traditional style, I use it to think about her and to stay aware of rhythm and structure. The second is finding popular music and harvesting a short from a line or idea. I cap the length at about 40 words, so a hyper-flash piece. The idea with these is similar to the haikus, except at a narrative level.

Haikus and a note on structure

Each poem is organized in a 5-7-5 with the traditional kirigi: a dash, ellipsis or exclamatory particle “how” to give it cyclicality. More often I structure it to be narratively recursive, but where I can be creative enough for the “ideal” form, I attempt including a (English-translation) kirigi.

Leaves starting to fall

Autumn harvest festival

ends as it begins

“She Knows” by J. Cole was today’s research. And given the Halloween season, the following flash story became the short below.

He fled, blood trailing from his fingers.

“She knows.” The empty grave was confirmation. The forest curled in around him, night deepening every shadow.

Then, her voice on the wind:

“Run, my love. This is where the fun begins.”

(39 words)