Extreme Compression: the Heroic Couplet
Leonardo
Whether for love of flight or liberty
he bought caged birds, only to set them free.
--from the Deed of Gift
Spring Cleaning
Their pinions whistle as the pintails fly,
feather dusters brushing the April sky.
--from Very Far North
On his Sixtieth Birthday
I was sixteen not very long ago
and thought “Ski!” when I shoveled heavy snow.
--today
I've only compressed a poem into an heroic couplet three times in my life, at age 25, then again at age 50, and finally now. How many others have done these tiny things? Or would like to try it now?
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