One Sentence Poems

James Hamby Orpheus Scorned We all know the story– How Orpheus looks back too soon, with but a foot upon the top stair, and how Eurydice fades back into shadow, leaving her lover with unspeakable heartache, yet how much more so my pain to find you never loved me, that even had I descended to […]

James Hamby Age 14 He remembered how when he first studied Latin the kitchen grew so cold around midnight. James Hamby would one day like to keep chickens.  

James Hamby Age 6 Sitting under his tree at recess, he wondered why being alone made him both happy and sad. James Hamby would one day like to keep chickens.  

James Hamby Lachesis  Every winter I saw her through the snow, glinting in my eye like jagged ice, unreachable at the edge of perception. James Hamby won the blue ribbon in the sack race at his elementary school three years in a row.

James Hamby Blue Hole I suppose little Cherokee feet once stood where my son now stands, slightly burning on sun-blanched stone before hurtling down, plunging into the impossible iciness of a mountain stream. James Hamby is the Assistant Director of the Writing Center at Middle Tennessee State University. He fears bandersnatches.

James Hamby Sunbeams at Dusk In the living room where my mother kept her porcelain cats and angels, motes danced in slanted sunbeams as dusk gave way to shadow. James Hamby works in the Writing Center at Middle Tennessee State University where he also teaches classes in composition and literature.