The Shortest Poem and a Few Other Party Tricks

As the title of the posts suggests, I'll be sharing with you the shortest poem. Or at least debating about, evaluating, and trying to find the shortest poem. First, let's define "poetry" itself.

"po·et·ry

noun
 

the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts."

 

Or as Merriam Webster Dictionary puts it:

 

-

"po·et·ry

noun \ˈpō-ə-trē, -i-trē also ˈpȯ(-)i-trē\

: something that is very beautiful or graceful"

 

 

 One last definition from good old Wikipedia:

-

"Poetry ... is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language ... to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. "

(Basically, literary art which creates more meaning than just the characters/letters/symbols it's composed of*.)

 

Something beautiful or graceful? Literary art that means something deeper? That sounds more interesting, so why don't we go with that... Here's our first contestant, a poem whose author is been lost in history, but who is suspected to be Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstien, or Strickland Gillilan. It is titled "On the Antiquity of Microbes" or more commonly: "Fleas". It reads as follows:

Fleas:

Adam

Had 'em 

The words "Adam" and the word (or maybe words) "Had 'em" don't "evoke" much meaning on their own, but put into a "literary work", the mean something much more humorous and thoughtful. So it's a poem, right? 

Muhammed Ali's:

 

Me. 

We.

 

 

Now here's one that's really interesting written by Aram Saroyan:

 

 lighght

 

It's not just "light", it seems to be a composite of two "light"s amalgamated together. Another interesting fact is that - depending on your pronunciation - four out of seven letters in this word are silent. Deeper meaning? Yes. Graceful? Yes. Poem? Maybe. 

 

There is also a poem writing by "jwcurry". It is a simple lower case "i", but the dot is instead replaced by the author's thumb print.  

And my favorite also by Aram Saroyan:

Some speculate that this is perhaps a peek into the "primordial" forming of our alphabet. The "m" and the "n" just haven't quite split. It also seems to mean "I'm", the forming of conscience. Here's some more like this that I made. 

Anyway, I'll leave it up to you to decide what the shortest poem really is. 

I also highly recommend Vsauce's "What is the Shortest Poem?", an excellent watch. 

*Yes, yes. Shoot me now, Grammar Nazis. I did end the sentence with a preposition.