Ok, first off, I need to apologize. The brevity of this form definitely did not inspire a corresponding brevity in my post. I got a little carried away with Mary Lee’s prompt and decided to share the whole dang process!

So, let’s be clear– I am a total Wordle nerd and was utterly delighted when Mary Lee challenged us this month with the Wordy 30 form. Here is her explanation of the form: “A Wordy 30 is a poem using exactly 30 letters. Each line should have the same number of letters. Each line should use one word. You might have 6 lines with 5 letters in each line (like Wordle), or 5 x 6, 3 x 10, 10 x 3, 15 x 2, 2 x 15, 30 x 1, or (most unlikely) 1 x 30. Have…fun???”

I dove in with great enthusiasm, and found myself gravitating toward the 6×5 structure.

Guess
whose
terse
verse
stuck
quick?

©Molly Hogan

Hmmmm…. the one word per line limit was…well…limiting! I kept fiddling away at it.

Every
terse
verse
first
began
worse.

©Molly Hogan

That one made me laugh, but I realized that what I wanted to do was somehow tell a story within the tight framework of the challenge. I thought about this a lot, often while driving to work.

Rainy
drive
Final
nerve
frays
snaps

©Molly Hogan

Meh. I still wasn’t satisfied. Maybe I should get a bit more philosophical. Or I could play around with 6x5s. Or, inspired by Margaret and Linda, I could create add some image poems.

Nature
offers
tender
solace…
Linger

©Molly Hogan

Leaves
shiver…
Winter
admits
ghosts

©Molly Hogan

Finally, (because, why not?!) I decided to try a 3×10.

Time Scythes

everything
meticulous
disappears

©Molly Hogan

If you have any more appetite for Wordy 30s, check out what the other Inklings did on their sites. Here are the links:

Linda Mitchell
Margaret Simon
Catherine Flynn
Heidi Mordhorst
MaryLee Hahn

This week’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Sarah Grace Tuttle at her blog. Be sure to stop by and enjoy some poetry!