We are pleased to toast a new poetry form! The Monobon is a poetic form comprised of prose and ending with a monostich or one-line poem. Here are two examples written in two different styles of poetry:
By Carol Dorf
Invisible: Toots
As a teen all I wanted was to be invisible. Well that wasn’t all I wanted but it would have been a good start. I didn’t want anyone to notice my jeans had a J on them instead of a W. I really didn’t want that boy behind me in French class to call me Toots, and banging my chair into his dangling arm was of limited use. I didn’t want anyone to call me fat. I didn’t want my geometry teacher to notice all my missing assignments, the band leader — anyway you get the idea. And before that, in childhood, I didn’t want to be the one in trouble when my father started roaring. So in middle age, I was reasonably well prepared to keep my disability invisible, though when people asked directly I couldn’t stop talking. Later, when my walking faltered, my disability became more visible, though it attribution remained slippery. I wanted to inscribe, fat is the least of my problems, in my medical record. This morning, at the pool, the early morning waterwalkers and I paced each other. Invisible to anyone besides each other we moved through that forgiving medium.
Light shifts in small waves, steam rises, one dramatic splash.
*
By Sheila E. Murphy
Tone Tempura
Humpbacked hashtags winter here among the decibels caught up in an ear trumpet just newly cleaned. I stole a moth from the giveaway coat as beige as let-go winter trees. I writhed with smudged wings to be included in a chamber music mainly insects know. Mirroring the sotto glow of bronze bells lifted to another weather. Astride a full-grown tarp draped across a dry dark fence. A kind of limbo marks the close of trail toward and away. Any deviation, a sullen mischief marks the smudge that seeks a quiet shrillness in the cold.
Mortuary science left to tithe beyond young gravitas
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An essay describing the creation of the Monobon is featured on Marsh Hawk Press’ “Chapter One” series that focuses on beginnings. Here’s an excerpt:
“The monobon is very much a contemporary creature reflecting the zeitgeist. That is, the monobon is created in the Zoom age. I’ve noticed that during poetry readings on Zoom, Zoom attendees frequently type up a line they heard and liked on the Zoom event’s Chat screen. This emphasizes a favored line and I’ve observed some can stand alone as a monostich. Thus, I consider the monobon to reflect the nature of attention in the digital age.”
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An Introduction to, and folio of, Monobon poems is featured in The Halo Halo Review, December 2023, and features contributions by the first (known) poets to write in the Monobon form. We thank and list these poets below because it’s unique to know which poems first take up a new poetry form:
Eileen R. Tabios
Luisa A. Igloria
Rachielle Ragasa Sheffler
Sheila E. Murphy
Bruce W. Niedt
Leny M. Strobel
Carol Dorf
Sandy Mcintosh
Thomas Fink
Zosimo Quibilan, Jr.
William Allegrezza
Julia Rose Lewis
Aileen Cassinetto
harry k stammer
Skye Ibarra
Maica Castillo
Jashley C. Laconico
Jenny Ortuoste
Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
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First Book to Contain Monobons:
Escritoire: Poems by Sheila E. Murphy (Lavender Ink, 2025).
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We hope more readers are encouraged to write poems in the Monobon form. You are also encouraged to create variations from the original form (prose followed by a monostich) and can see examples of variations in The Halo Halo Review’s Introduction to the Monobon.
Eileen R. Tabios 