american sentences

[zero]

quote=paul nelson

• american sentences as a poetic form was allen ginsberg's effort to make american the haiku. if haiku is seventeen syllables going down in japanese text, he would make american sentences seventeen syllables going across, linear, like just about everything else in america
  
  
• american sentences are one line, 17 syllable sentences
  
  
• american sentences work best when there is an aha! moment and when the modifier comes in the last word, or even last syllable:
  
  
• examples:
  
  

  four skinheads stand in the streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella.
  october 4, 1987
  
  outside ritzy pine street shops, two legless men among those seeking change.
  August 8, 1990
  
  ................................allen ginsberg

  
  
• post as many/few words as you want as long as sentence=17syllables
  
  
• write a "go it alone" entire sentence OR start/finish "communal" sentences - just complete any "communal" sentence before posting a "go it alone" sentence

to begin:


station café

.