The Shortest Poem in History

| Danna Smith

When I came across Strickland Gillilan’s 1927 poem, “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes,” I had a good laugh. Not only because it’s a concise, funny poem but because the long, complicated title is comically in contrast. Apparently, someone else thought the same thing (as far as I can tell, nobody has fessed up yet) and later shortened the title to “fleas.” So here it is, the shortest poem in history:

Photo, with thanks, by Georgio Travato
Fleas
Adam had'em.
Not so fast!

Let’s not hand out the trophy yet! There seems to be some controversy as to who is the winner of the shortest poem penned award. Aram Saroyan wrote this poem in the seventies at just one-letter long. It’s a four legged letter “M”:

shortestpoem

What the heck does this poem mean? I haven’t a clue, but poet, Bob Grumman, interprets the poem in this way, “it snaps us visually into the center of an alphabet just starting to form, between its m and n.” And he says, “The poem also comes across as a pun for the word, “am,” to suggest some kind of superior, or perhaps gross, state of being–an “am” times one-and-a-half.”

That’s pretty deep for this girl, but I will say it does a poem’s job and this is to get us thinking.

A little more than a decade later, JW Curry composed this one-letter poem in which he portrays his complete individuality with his thumbprint as the dot of the letter I. Some say his is the shortest poem ever. I say it’s pretty clever:

are these really poems?

A poem tells a brief story with one or more poetic techniques including, imagery, emotion, figurative language, tone, mood, rhyme, rhythm, etc. Based on poetic technique, all three of these examples, though short, are indeed poems.

and the winner is…

The Shortest Poem in History is still up for grabs as it depends on who you ask. However, if I were sitting in the judge’s seat, I’d say Gillian’s “fleas” is the shortest “couplet” and Aram Saroyan’s one-word poem, “M,” wins the shortest poem prize because he wrote his one-letter poem before Curry did.

jumping on for THE ride

Since then, many other poets have had the pleasure of trying their hand at writing their shortest poem. Including poet William C. Wilkinsen when he penned this two-word poem titled Tears:

Tears
I. Cry.
MY TURN

Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give it a try. Here are my shortest poem contributions:

Amnesia
Brain drain. 

Sugar Daddy
Pay Pal.

Family Reunion
Mixed Nuts.

Triplet Babies
Poop Group.
Your turn

Want to give it a try? Feel free to leave your shortest poem in the comments below (scroll way down). I look forward to seeing how clever my readers can be. For those of you who would like to share or comment anonymously, I’ve created settings to allow you to do so. Simply reply without signing into your WordPress account.

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44 thoughts on “The Shortest Poem in History”

  4. So… based on the criteria of what I read above … I just might have the shortest poem ever.

    “Dollar Tree” by Daniel Goodland (composed this day, 2022-05-03)
    $

    My poem uses no words or letter to give its message, but instead, it is the symbol for the dollar growing out of the metaphorical page before the reader. Since symbols came before the modern written word, that would place it before a single letter in the quest for shortest poem ever.

    Reply

  6. Popsicle…Please Freeze by Charlotte Coffield age 7, Truck…Boy Toy by Connor Coffield age 4. Connor…Fart Tart by Charlotte Coffield sister, age 7

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  9. who wrote the poem that reads:

    “A Nun in the supermarket waiting in the queue wondering what its like to buy groceries for two”

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  10. what about Jose Garcia Villa’s The Emperor’s New Sonnet? zero words, zero lines. Only smart people can read it 😁.

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  11. Not mine, but Jose Garcia Villa wrote “The Emperor’s New Sonnet”. Zero lines, zero words…and only smart people can read it 😉😁.

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    1. Ha! yes, there’s that blank page of a poem which raises the question does a poem need words to be a poem? Being a lover of words, I tend to think so 🙂 With that said, in art and poetry there is something for everyone.

      Reply

  13. This one is not mine, but that of Kirsi Kunnas, a famous Finnish childrens’ author. It has been published in her anthology “Tiitiäisen satupuu”.

    HUONO OMENASATO

    Asuntopula,
    sanoi omenamato.

    (BAD APPLE HARVEST

    Shortage of homes,
    said the apple worm.)

    – Susanna Viljanen, Helsinki, Finland –

    Reply

  15. The shortest rhyming poem, which is also a palindrome, in Dutch is:

    U,
    Nu!

    You,
    Now! (‘respectful’ You)

    From the greatest Dutch poet, Joost van den Vondel written in 1620.

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  16. Muhammad Ali, I believe in a speech to the Oxford Union, said;

    Me.
    We.

    Making it the shortest poem in the English language?

    It’s in the When We were kings documentary. 🙂

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    1. Wow, thank you for sharing this! I have not watched this documentary but look forward to. It’s amazing to me how one can say so much with so few words! 🙂

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  17. I was going to post the untitled Muhammed Ali poem with a name (and punctuation) I chose:

    Vita
    Me; we.

    4 total letters in this version, 8 with my title. This was the way George Plimpton heard it and interpreted the poem when Ali spoke to Harvard’s senior class.

    I did some research about this event because I really loved watching Plimpton talk about it in the documentary. I found an account of the event in the Harvard Crimson of the same recitation.

    Here is the background: during pre-graduation festivities Harvard invited Muhammed Ali to speak to the senior class. At the end of the speech someone in the audience shouted out: “Muhammed tell a poem!” Ali was famous for his rhymes and poems. This is the poem the way the Crimson reported Ali ad lib poem:

    Me.
    Whee!

    2 extra letters and different punctuation mark creates a poem with a completely different meaning.

    This is how I think about it.

    Using Plimpton’s interpretation Ali was stating:

    Me (this is me, an individual man, standing here before you all).
    We (we’re all in this together no matter what anyone may say).

    This is a poem of solidarity, the power and force of standing together.

    The Crimson’s interpretation:

    Me (here I am world, look at me).
    Whee! (I love being me, I am the greatest!).

    This is a poem of celebration: I am the greatest! This is something Ali was fond of saying – if you are old enough to remember, like I am.

    So, even in a poem of 2 short words – maybe the shortest poem in the English language – the meaning of the poem is open to interpretation!

    Reply

    1. Thank you for your insights on this. You are so right, poetry, like art relies on the individual’s perspective. I think that is what I love most about poetry, it speaks to everyone in the way they need it most.

      Reply

    1. I like this. It kicks in my imagination. A cloud could be proud to give needed rain, shade a picnic in the meadow, or maybe it’s taking center stage as the only cloud in the sky. 🙂

      Reply

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