140 Shorties

About the Book

140 Shorties has a way of bobbing and weaving along, from item to item. Each versification is truly brief, relatively speaking-no longer, usually, than about 35 words. A special little approach [or 'recipe'] was used in terms of the actual composition of the entire aggregation, so, for one thing, an evident rhyming between some titles might very readily be seen to exist.

Maybe about half of the included 140 pieces are rhymed and about half unrhymed. Aspects of rhythm may be detectable, but blatant meter generally seems unlikely. Here are a couple of perhaps representative samples:

DOGS
Dogs daily seem
to have managed.
From the earliest
of life's moments
a dog's howl
emanates fiercely.
In the lust
and luxury
ruling the planet
few canine barks
might be unperemptory.

HOGS
Hogs that were called
became appalled.
The human condition
implied sedition.
To be a pig
stayed rather big,
but snout on snout
wanted out.
A true main sorrow
was mere tomorrow.

About the Author

Bruce Hamilton, a rather solitary Californian, attended Yale College for two years. He assiduously has devoted most of his literary practicing to such basic pieces as limericks and sonnets. His recent ?literary hero? was and still is Jorge Luis Borges, toward whose pessimisms about language and literature he remains sympathetic.