International Pwoermd Writing Month V Begins

I have spent much of my life in pursuit of small things, and one of the smallest has been pwoermds, which are nothing more that poems a single word in length. The idea that something so small and unassuming might have some esthetic power intrigues me, and I've seen how many of these poems really do work as poems, as lexical objects of contemplation.

I could easily assert that so many pwoermds are being written these days merely because I have promoted the form. I have not invented it. The inventor is unknown for sure. It may have been Cor van den Heuvel, working in the realm of haiku, or it may have been Aram Saroyan when he was a minimalist concrete poet. Or it may have been someone who preceded both of them.

Regardless, the pwoermd is flourishing, and each year (for five years now) I've hosted an event event (International Pwoermd Writing Month) to serve as a lo-res response to Poetry Month and National Poetry Writing Month. So far this time, we have fifteen known participants (counting myself), who are posting work at sixteen different sites on the Internet. These people live in at least six different countries on two continents, and they'll be working in at least five languages (I'm counting Scots here).

To celebrate this year, I'll create a pwoermd each day (no idea for one yet today), and I'll post occasional pieces about pwoermds.

The participants as they stand:

• Catherine Ednie

• Gary Barwin 

• Jeremy C. Casabella

• John Moore Williams

• Jonathan Jones

• Mara Patricia Hernandez

• Mark Lamoureux

• Mark Young

• Mike Cannell 

• Piotr Szreniawski 

• Satu Kaikkonen (HZ 240v)

• Satu Kaikkonen (ö.tökkää)

• Stephen Nelson

• Suzanne Mercury

• Tim Canny

pw(o'er)md