Haiku One modern form of poetry that really doesn't get enough credit is the spam subject line. Trying to say "Cheap penis pills" without actually using those words (because of spam filters) is now a well honed art form. "Make a mountain in your pants" or "She'll never leave your bed" is so much more descriptive and evocative than just "Buy my fake Viagra".

Along a similar line, I think the Blackberry's belabored keyboarding encourages a lot of this kind of shortened, condensed writing. Most of my emails these days are four sentences or less, because tapping out anything longer is a hassle. Twitter is similar. You have 200 characters to express some meaningful personal status, so you choose your words carefully: economizing space with colorful word choice.

In effect, our always-on, shortened attention span internet generation has no time to trudge through multiple paragraphs of writing. We all start demanding clear, concise, short messaging so that we can quickly flit onward to the next task. Hence, we all become a bit more poetical in our writing.  ¶ 5/26/2008 11:10:00 AM