How to Write a Text Message Poem

I culled the directions below directly from text message poet Andrew Wilson's article, (and I added a few of my own), Everday words from everyday lives from The Guardian. The article is informative and entertaining. All the text message poems are from The Guardian's 2001 text message poetry contest.

I just wrote this tonight, and sent it out to a couple folks around 9:19 P.M. Here's my first attempt at text message poetry:

Sari - Danna
a dream rooted in my flesh,
an oracle made of a river of blood and spirit.
In the moonlight I watched a flock of flaming birds
lift like language from my body
& light on the black branches
of the olive tree outside my window.
Their harsh and urgent cries beckon
me to gather the torn pieces
& frayed remnants of my life
and join them in the shimmering darkness.
The world's needle will stitch me
with silk thread, suture my selves:
dream, oracle, river, bird, tree, darkness.
Stich me whole and seamless & I will wake from a new dream,
in a new bed & i will love this jeweled body;
love me fierce.

Directions:
1. Text message poems must be written on phone screens.
2. Different makes of phone have different -sized screens, so the only way to control the rhythm and pace of what is being read is by choice of words and punctuation.

3. Text messages are short, so the subject has to be tackled in a way that will accommodate 160 characters.
4. A text message poem captures one truthful moment and describes what Ezra Pound called the luminous detail. Find it, show it and let it speak for itself.
5. Text messages are written in everyday words about our everyday lives. Handled with care and mindfulness, that’s poetry.
6. Text messages have own abbreviated vocabulary in order to save space. Use them in a playful, inventive way, but keep in mind your subject matter and also, be aware the effect they may have on the reader .
7. Give the poem a title.
8. Send your friends a text message poem and challenge them to send you an original.
9. Text your poems and post them to your blog or post them in the comments here!

Text message poem examples from The Guardian's Hot Hundred

Be strong
Jus left th clinic
bstrong cheri
arm ok no panic
need u 2 promis me
2 keep kissin
me left breast
cos baby nxt week
me right'll b missin

Apology
It wasn't me it was the words.
They get into the smallest
spaces and cause interrup-
tions
To the smooth running of
conversations


Dancer cows
along a high hedged meander
Friesian hoofers pirouette out
conga ahead
&soft-shoe-shuffle home
farmer quicksteps the gate
shut we trip on

The Guardian's 1st & 5th place winners:

txtin iz messin,
mi headn'me englis,
try2rite essays,
they all come out txtis.
gran not plsed w/letters shes getn,
swears i wrote better
b4 comin2uni.
&she's african

Hetty Hughes

Watch dog
Watch me,
or i'll be prowling my way
round your house of a body:
licking at windows,
stealing through doors,
trying beds out for size.

Melissa Terras