Humanyms

6 Word Memoir

I’ve been tagged by Steve for a 6 Word Memoir.

Wired did the micro flash fictions competition with the concept in 2006. BBC Radio 4 collected a bunch too, such as

“Wasted my whole life getting comfortable.” – Richard Merrington
“Blankets, books, bottles, books, blankets.” – Margaret Melling

Lots of pithy inspiration. Smith Magazine is still taking entries with the catch phrase “One life. Six words. What’s yours?”. Some recent favs of mine from Smith:

“Cinderella story, only edgier, more subplots.” – Linda Collison

“Once, the chalkboard. Now, the chalk.” – Samantha Chapman

“Burned-down house. Can see the moon.” – ML Spinrad

“Who needs friends; I have myselves.” – clarke titus

“God Called, you have 1 message” – David Yun

Smith published Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure which collected almost 1,000 six-word memoirs, including additions from many celebrities such as Stephen Colbert, Jane Goodall and Dave Eggers.

So the idea has become a book and now it’s a meme too. And all spun from Hemingway’s “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

The 6 Word Memoir as a meme:

The rules:

1) Write your own six word memoir
2) Post it on your blog; include a visual illustration if you’d like
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible
4) Tag at least 5 more blogs with links
5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I’m doing my 6 Word Memoir as a haiga:

I do everything more elaborately than I have to; I’m full of beans. (Adzuki beans, specifically. It’s my way to amuse myself.)

No pressure. It’s just a parlour game. I tag: Colleen, jon, Neil, Amanda and you?

Poetry News Link: David W. McFadden’s Why Are You So Sad? was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize.

Hearing Poetry Link: Listen to Susan McMaster, Colin Morton, and Andrew McClure

Lessons from Poets: Susan McMaster at the last Canal Mug Poetry Series read from animated stories of the last few decades of life in Ottawa. Fascinating stuff. Put her book on my wishlist. She also read poems of that stage of life we call aging. In one letter to herself she says, look at your mom, gracious, grateful, using a lifetime of habit to be warm and happy. When all else goes, these scripts are hard-wired, are all we have left. Each day we have a choice in how we are wiring ourselves. (To paraphrase) Learn from this, she says to herself, learn.