the shortest poem ever written

Stephan Schmitz

How few words can make a poem?

I know this post will cause a lot of debate, frankly, I am not sure this can be called a poem, but who am I to judge?

To spare the intrigue, I am gonna tell you upfront that the shortest poem is a one word work, but it is not a simple word.

To make it more interesting, I will include a few more selections that in my personal view, are closer to what I believe poetry is.

So let’s waste no more words :)

Aram Saroyan - Lighght

It was not until the 1960s with the contemporaneous emergence of pop art, minimalism, and conceptual art that a single word or letter could be recognized as a poem.

Aram Saroyan's poem "lighght" is open to interpretation due to its minimalist and abstract nature. The single word, with its doubled "gh," visually and phonetically evokes the word "light" but distorts it, suggesting multiple possible meanings.

The extra "gh" creates a visual stutter, mimicking the flickering or radiance of light. It draws attention to the word itself as an object, emphasizing form over conventional meaning.

The poem may evoke the concept of light, both literal (illumination) and metaphorical (insight, clarity), while the unusual spelling invites readers to pause and reconsider how language captures such ideas.

As a product of the 1960s minimalist and concrete poetry movements, it prioritizes simplicity and the physicality of text, encouraging readers to find meaning in the act of reading itself.

Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much. Language consists of five basic sounds produced by the vocal cords. They are the vowels a, e, i, o, u. The other sounds are consonants produced by air pressure: s, f, g, and so forth.

Do you believe some combination of such basic sounds could ever explain who you are, or the ultimate purpose of the universe, or even what a stone or light is in its depth?

Bonus

1. There is a little-known poem by Muhammad Ali that became a contender for the world’s shortest poem in history.
   
   It was either –
   ‘Me / We’ or
   ‘Me? / Whee!!’

2. My favourite one is though one by George MacDonald – The Shortest and Sweetest of Songs. This one in my view has the most meaning in it.

   

Oh wow, you made it till the end of it, thank you!

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