A couple weeks before vacation, we took the boys to the skating rink. I was there for the laser tag. I know better than to put rollerskates underneath me — a skateboard, maybe. Not rollerskates — at least not when they are doing the LIMBO.

(Does anyone remember the “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” commercials?)

Anyway, I watched as young children bent themselves low to the ground and with their rollerskates nearly on their sides, slide under the bar. They were chanting “How low can you go? How low can you go!” It looked painful.

Then, on vacation, I read two books that got me thinking along the same lines.

Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, has written several poetry books. I was reading A poem traveled down my arm. In the foreword, Mrs. Walker talks about the creation of the book. As she was signing thousands insert pages to go in one of her books…thousands….she got bored writing her own name so she she started doing little doodles on each page. Simple line drawings. And those led to simple expressions. Little micro poems.

I also read I wrote this for you by pleasefindthis, yes, that is the moniker of the author — pleasefindthis. The book is really a love letter written in small little poems, many of them one sentence — a few a little longer.

The simplicity of these poems, while also the depth of feeling generated got me thinking about creating some simple expressions of my own. Truth be told, my journal is full of them…most of my poems start with a simple line i scratch down — they just seem to grow from there though.

We have written in several forms that would fit this prompt; haiku, senryu, sudoku (smiles), american sentences…but i dont want you to feel constrained though (especially after last weeks difficult form) and want you to focus on capturing simple expressions.

Your ticket in is 40 words. You need to say what you need in 40 words. Or less. How low can you go? Can you do it in twenty words? ten words?

Give it a try. Go as low as you can without losing the meaning, the feeling.

If you are new, here is how it works:

• write a poem to the prompt and post it on your webpage or blog
• click the Mr Linky button below and enter your name and direct web address of your poem
• there you will also find the others that have written to this challenge — read them, tell them what you liked, what challenged you, what lines were the strongest or a gentle critique.
• if you use social media, use the tag #dversepoets or @dversepoets so that we can find you and help promote
• have fun

& i will see you, out on the trail.  ~ Brian