The Fleeting, Electric Moment: Ginsberg's American Sentence

the ultra micro

Oct 13, 2025

“Any gesture we make consciously, be it artwork, a love affair, any food we cook, can be done with a kind of awareness of eternity, truthfulness...In portraiture, you have the fleeting moment to capture the image as it passes and before it dissolves...It captures the shadow of the moment.” ~Allen Ginsberg

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The Ultra Micro

Today, I’d like to look a bit at the tiniest micro form that flash can take, the under fifty-worder or even briefer than that. Caveat: This is not a form I feel particularly adept at and further, I don’t always love pieces this short. But oh man, when done well, ultra micros leave me awestruck by their power, precision, and emotional punch. I’m awestruck, too, by the writers who can work such magic.

“...beauty consists of its own passing, just as we reach for it. It’s the ephemeral configuration of things in the moment, when you can see both their beauty and their death.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Whether you’re drawn to writing this small or not, it’s good practice, I think, to attempt extreme brevity if for no other reason than to get better at concision in general. And who knows, it may become your favorite form to play with.

So much of the energy and urgency of flash fiction is conveyed through its concision and distillation. Winnowing the work down to its essence is something flash writers share with poets. It behooves us as we create in this form to continue to add skills and “tricks” to our toolbox.

The American Sentence

“When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.” ― Strunk & White, The Elements of Style

One way to go about practicing extreme brevity, is to take inspiration from the poets. Beat generation poet Allen Ginsberg came up with what he called the “American Sentence” ( a sentence comprised of 17 syllables). What he did was add 5 + 7 + 5 to create this form. He seemed to believe haiku didn’t work well with American English. Kim Addonizio talks about the American sentence in her craft book, Ordinary Genius, which I highly recommend.

Here are some of Ginsberg’s own American Sentences:

Crescent moon, girls chatter at twilight on the bus ride to Ankara.

Put on my tie in a taxi, short of breath, rushing to meditate.

That grey-haired man in business suit and black turtleneck thinks he’s still young.

Approaching Seoul by Bus in Heavy Rain

Get used to your body, forget you were born, suddenly you got to get out!

(See how the title of the example above lends weight and context to the sentence.)

To me, these are quintessential microfictions. And take note of how much Ginsberg’s pieces rely on “show” vs. “tell.” Like haiku, these sentences hinge on movement to expand their meaning. To, in a sense, pan out and show us more. A moment, sharply observed, providing the all-important “ah ha!”

Moments are never truly static, but alive, electric, (some more than others) and we should render them as such. The painter Andrew Wyeth said, “It’s a moment that I’m after, a fleeting moment, but not a frozen moment.”

“Winter Carnival” - Andrew Wyeth

Your Prompt

Today, I’d like you to try your hand at an American Sentence. They must be exactly 17 syllables. Create in the spirit of haiku. Find the “ah ha” moment. Reread Ginsberg’s sentences above for inspiration. Capture a fleeting, but alive, moment.

And keep in mind Toni Morrison’s wisdom: “One has to work very carefully with what is in between the words. What is not said. Which is measure, which is rhythm and so on. So, it is what you don’t write that frequently that gives what you do write its power.”

Observe a moment, then find a way to leap off of that moment in a way that opens and expands it. Consider what may have happened before or after it.
Do more showing than telling here. You will kill your American Sentence with exposition. And besides, there’s no room for background or explanations.
Any title you give doesn’t count toward the syllables, so use your title to provide another layer.
If visuals help, seek out some art or photography or simply gaze out your window or record what you see in the grocery store or on your walk. Or use this Gregory Crewdson photo for inspiration:

Or this photo…

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Now, if you’d like, take it further…

Use your American Sentence as a springboard to a more fleshed out microfiction. But challenge yourself to stay under fifty words.

As you write, consider what Chuck Palahniuk says about essential detail: “Beginning writers tend to be verbose. We can’t tell the difference between an essential detail and an inessential one. We’re like golden retrievers romping through Storyland, and pretty much every damn thing we see is a squirrel.”