"Anxiety Is..." - Micro-Poetry at a Glance

Laying in bed

The fire too hot

The room too cold.

...

Micro-poetry is exactly what it sounds like: small, short poetry. It is an interesting genre, as writers must powerfully convey their message and images within only a few lines. When done correctly, this genre can be incredibly powerful. The length restriction creates a unique poem in the following ways:

1. When an author's length is restricted, they must choose every word precisely, making sure they each have a purpose. Because of this, the message of the poem becomes very effective and compelling. 
2. Reading a short poem allows the reader to ponder it more easily than other genres of poems. 
3. They are often simplistic and straight forward, allowing for readers to disregard form and other complicated literary techniques.

Micro-poetry has recently become very popular, thanks to social media platforms such as Twitter which utilizes word or character limits. Poets are able to quickly share their writing to many people all at once, gaining exposure and critiques. As the saying goes, good things come in small packages. The same principle applies to poetry.