They say a picture paints a thousand words but a well-placed word or sentence can paint a complex picture as well.

I remember reading Kevin J Anderson's "Saga of the Seven Suns" series where a Klikiss Robot is explaining things to a human. The human is confused by the explanation and the heart of his confusion is his belief that robots cannot lie. To conclude its explanation the Kilikiss robot says, "I lied."

Two words. Simple, yet powerful when placed in context. The much overused "Jesus wept" is another good example of a whole story packed into two tiny words.

One of the advantages of writing poetry, particularly form poetry, is that as a writer you are forced to be economical with your words. You want to say as much as you can in 10 syllables, or 8, or even less. Just a thought for all you budding writers out there - including myself.