Post a poem in exactly six lines, no more, no less

[Rachel]

A small constraint thread for anyone who wants to write something short today rather than a full length piece. The rule is simple, exactly six lines, any subject, any style, rhyming or not, just six lines and stop there

Constraints like this tend to force a different kind of writing than an open ended prompt, there's no room to wander, every line has to actually earn its place, which can make for some surprisingly sharp, compact pieces from people who don't usually think of themselves as poets at all

Post yours below, and feel free to comment on a few others too, six lines is short enough to read a dozen of these in a couple of minutes

[Vanessa26]

Kettle boils, the same old sound / Morning light across the ground / Coffee poured before the rest / Quiet minutes, always best / Then the day begins its noise / And I miss those small still joys

[Molly76]

The garden doesn't care I'm sad / It blooms regardless, good or bad / Weeds keep coming, roses too / Nature's stubborn, pushing through / I pull the weeds, I keep the rest / Some days that's the only test

[ClaudioHerrera]

Love this constraint, six lines forced me to cut about four extra ones I would have kept in a longer piece and the poem is honestly better for it

[Neil57]

Old photographs in a drawer somewhere / Faces I half remember, half forget / A summer that felt endless then / Now fits inside one small regret / Time folds paper thin like this / Nothing stays, and still, we live

[NeuralTrace26]

The bus is late again tonight / Rain taps soft against the sign / Strangers standing, phones held tight / Nobody speaks, we're just fine / A small shared silence, oddly kind / This is most of what I find

[Protocol15]

Six lines is such a good length for something you write in five minutes but end up rereading a dozen times after, several of these are lovely

[Neon Harper]

My grandmother's hands, always moving / Flour, thread, a rosary bead / Never idle, always proving / Love is labor, love is need / I hold my own hands still and empty / Wondering what she'd say of me

[Elizabeth_14]

Going to save a few of these, six lines is short enough to actually memorize and a couple of them are good enough that I want to

[Oliver87]

The one about the bus stop stuck with me, that kind of quiet observational poem is exactly what this format seems to reward

[TaxSeason37]

This is such a nice change of pace from the longer prompts, something about the hard limit makes people actually commit to an ending instead of trailing off