Let's dub this American haiku.

Smith Magazine, a popular online periodical that features personal storytelling, has turned out a compilation of hundreds of six-word memoirs by the famous and not famous.

"Soul'd out so I could prophet." — Deepak Chopra

There's no set number of beats, as with haiku, which has 17 beats in three lines with a 5-7-5 rhythm that add up to "what, so what, now what." The six-word memoir has the same meditative charm as haiku, but with less of a Zen quality.

"Revenge is living well without you" — Joyce Carol Oates

Often, what claims to be a new form of writing turns out to be an anarchy of words from writers who can't master conventional prose. Not so with the bound collection "Not Quite What I Was Planning." These put a lot of weight in a small place.

"I still make coffee for two." — Zak Nelson

The editors link the form to a literary legend that says Ernest Hemingway accepted a challenge to write a novel in six words. The result: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Smith took up the form (Wired magazine has also featured it), and it has compiled text from many ethnic groups, both genders, all age groups and an array of occupations.

You'll find nearly 1,000 items chosen from 11,000 submissions. Each item is so short that you can read pieces in seconds or ponder the book for hours.

Check smithmag.net/sixwords and submit your own six-word memoir that might be published online — or in its next book.



hjackson@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8234