Rules of the Skinny Form
The "Skinny” is a short poem form that consists of eleven lines. The first and eleventh lines can be any length (although shorter lines are favored). The eleventh (last line) must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line (however, they can be rearranged--and poems can be linked as series pieces). The second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. All the lines in this form, except for the first and last lines, must be comprised of ONLY one word. The Skinny was created by Truth Thomas in the Tony Medina Poetry Workshop at Howard University in 2005 (© 2025).
