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It's become common, in the Age of Twitter and text-messaging, to condense one's writing. Twitter will permit no more than 140 characters per post, and tweets and text-messages both profit from space- and time-saving abbreviations like "cul8r." Now the six-word memoir or epitaph ("Not quite what I was planning" could be an example of both) has become a new literary genre, a kind of Westernized haiku. As it happens, I've been enjoying the narrative (intriguing story lines, like the Lakers flaming out) and lyric (slo-mo images of players moving with grace and power) poetry of this year's NBA playoffs. Most of the games have been absorbing, many of the individual plays dazzling--enough so that I was motivated to write six-word tributes to some of the wondrous players who have entertained me. Imagine my surprise when, willy-nilly, many of the brief poems turned out a bit snarky.
Carmelo Anthony
New
worm
in
the
Big
Apple
Amare Stoudamire
STAT
sheet
filled--
ring
finger
not
O.J. Mayo
Neither
item
featured
on
winning
menu
Zach Randolph
Earthbound
rebound
hound
refuses
to
pass
Kobe Bryant
Black
mamba
hisses,
another
jumper
misses
Lamar Odom
Anagramming
Lakers
find
doom
in
Odom
Pau Gasol
Wham!
Biff!
Pau!
Oops--
wrong
cartoon
Phil Jackson, "Zen Master"
Koan:
why
couldn't
Lakers
go
on?
Dwight Howard
Unable
to
carry
Orlando,
Atlas
shrugged
Derrick Rose
MVP
Lone
Ranger
or
turnover
Tonto?
Jamal Crawford
Seattleite's
jumpers
like
Seattle's
rain--
unceasing
Chris Anderson
"Birdman's"
plumage
has
evolved--
game
hasn't
LeBron James
With
ball,
dynamite;
without
ball,
dud
Dwyane Wade
Harsh
defender,
fierce
penetrator,
promiscuous
shooter
Tim Duncan
Big
Fundamental
goes
down
going
glass
Manu Ginobelli
Kamakaze
flier
crashes,
suffers
first-degree
floorburns
Kevin Durant
High
percentage
takes,
low
percentage
makes
Russell Westbrook
Unstoppable
driver
settles
for
pointless
3-pointers
Rajon Rondo
Injured
playmaker
unable
to
wing
it
Kevin Garnett
Angular
meanie
throws
elbows,
grabs,
hip-checks
Paul Pierce
Heart,
will,
not
quite
enough
skill
Ray Allen
Balletic
balance,
quick-flick
3s,
no
penetration
Jason Kidd
Your
shots
irksome--
get
Dirk
some
Dirk Nowitski
Titanic
Teutonic
master
of
one-footed
fallaway
Okay, I couldn't pull the snark trigger on Dirk. These are all great players, but Dirk, in my opinion the NBA's best shooter ever, is a special joy to watch .
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