I’m publishing (on average) a short piece per day on Twitter, including a mix of poetry and prose, so I’m posting a “highlights reel” here, and the rest can be found on my profile, @PeterRavlich.
If you enjoy ultra short form work, there are hundreds of other poets and writers creating moments of delight, tension, wonder and bravery, most consistently using the hashtag #vss365.
Prompt: Swoon (vss365)
You are so
far
beyond me
in every
single dimension—
I can’t even
Prompt: Flutter (Poetryin13)
That sweet
lub-dub was
so sufficient—
but feeling
this flutter
is bittersweet
bliss
Prompt: Integer (vss365)
In your influence
I feel
infinite
and yet constrained
Ordered
only to your orbit
where I’m dying
to remain
Count my singular
resolve
and salve this pain
Prompt: Concern (painfulprompts)
There are only four chambers
inside this heart
but I can’t seem to find
my way out
Prompt: Triangle (vss365)
The first is a fragile instant—
A heart is surrendered and won
The second a cognitive frisson
A deft dalliance is begun
The third is the angle unchallenged
Who toys with the others in turn
He’ll posture and pout as misdeeds echo out
But never be ready to learn
Prompt: Commute (vss365)
Everything you are to me
an absolute anomaly
in isolation can’t exist
(the pun misplaced but accurate)—
This is a sum that can’t be split
the product is inviolate
no cognitive coherence how
you’ve come to populate my now
But I’m glad
Prompt: Complex (vss365)
You say you’re
simple—
so simple
maybe it’s the word
that’s insufficient
maybe it’s me
because simple
has never meant
so much
Prompt: Field (vss365)
A heart is not a book
but a library
Where the authors each submit
a single tome
Whose pages leave us shook
and sad, and teary
But where sometimes we still sit
to dream of home
Prompt: Vector (vss365)
Turn my key until it binds
and point me down a stumbled line
I’ll be your rusting soldier
til the end
And when that final spring unwinds
my clockwork heart, my whole design
will be no single fraction colder—
For I’ve had you as a friend
Prompt: Calculus (vss365)
You nudge me
unexpectedly
and sometimes
off the edge—
how is one to
ascertain
these rates
of change?
If I were in
any way a smart
predictor I would
hedge—
It is not at all
unpleasant
but it’s strange.
Prompt: iff (vss365)
I just can’t see a case
that tests for true
When something ill-defined
and ephemeral is
lost
what do you weigh?
I know it’s my fault
But not how
when I can’t
be false
again
Prompt: Vector (vss365)
I have value
I know
and volition – a vector
so why
does my verse
tend
to zero
on you?
Prompt: Enhance (vss365)
If wishes
worked—
even once
You’d be unafraid
still perfect
but content
too
