Visit our Editor Interview on Duotrope to read about our process and what we look for in submissions!
What is single-line poetry and what do we publish?
English-language haiku, tanka, and other short poems often have line breaks that create tercets, quatrains, quintets, or other line configurations. Japanese haiku, however, are often printed in a column to create a vertical single-line poem. The poem of a single line is not a new technique, but a traditional presentation of haiku made new again in English.
Unlike poetry with line breaks, single-line poetry does not rely on physical enjambment to enhance the meaning of the poem. As such, one-line poetry can have more than one break in syntax to create multiple meanings. Single-line poetry can be a slippery lizard or a long-necked swan.
The single-line poetry published in whiptail includes monostich haiku, one-line tanka, poetic fragments, and one-line micropoems. The poems can be one word in length up to a column’s width, written horizontally, vertically, or as a concrete poem in any shape a line may take. When used, punctuation should be purposeful. No titles, please, except for sequences or multi-ku.
What is NOT single-line poetry?
Single-line poetry is not a sentence of prose. Single-line poetry is not a multi-line poem placed onto one line. The form should serve a purpose in the delivery of the poem.
Resources:
“whiptail monoku series” articles at The Haiku Foundation by Kat Lehmann and Robin Smith
“Haiku: Walking the Fine Line” by Kat Lehmann and Robin Smith
“From One-line Poems to One-line Haiku Part One: The Invitation” by William J. Higginson
“The Shape of Things to Come: Form Past and Future in Haiku” by Jim Kacian
“one-line haiku” by Marlene Mountain
“Monoku: Historical Perspective and Experimenting with Structural Style” by Pravat Kumar Padhy
“Travelling the single line of haiku” by Alan Summers
“Line” From A Poet’s Glossary by Edward Hirsch on poets.org
“Hatching a Kinetic Sculpture” & “Into the Undefined,” zipperku sequences by GRIX and Kat Lehmann
