✒️ Introducing Line Messaging: A New Way to Read Between the Lines

What if the last line of every stanza wasn’t just the end— but the beginning of something deeper?

Welcome to Line Messaging, a poetic form I created to challenge how we interpret structure, meaning, and message in poetry. Unlike traditional forms, Line Messaging weaves a second, often hidden, narrative using the last line of each stanza. When read together, these lines form an independent message or poem within the poem.

💡 What Is Line Messaging?

Line Messaging is a poetic form in which the final line of each stanza carries a thread of its own, ultimately forming a separate message when read sequentially.

This form was coined and created by Angel Favazza, and is now used by poets, educators, and writing professors across platforms.

Read the original definition on Shadow Poetry – Line Messaging.

📚 Where Line Messaging Is Being Used

Explore how Line Messaging is being discussed and practiced on platforms like:

You’ll also find examples and discussions on personal poetry blogs like Kitty’s Verses and Another Porch.

✒️ Why I Created Line Messaging

I wanted to design a form that invited deeper reflection — a poetic mirror where structure supports substance. Line Messaging teaches poets to think not only of what each stanza says, but what they collectively reveal when stripped of context.

I believe that words are every poet’s most powerful tool. In genre-specific collections, especially within speculative and fantastical literature, words must reify truth, capture despair, and echo the universe’s undeniable, mysterious actuality. Poetry connects us to something greater—reminding us that we are not alone, and perhaps offering glimpses into the still-undiscovered galaxies of existence.

🌙 Sample Line Messaging (Poetic Sample)

If stars forget to whisper, will we still dream?
Some maps fold inward—back into the heart.
Time bends for no one, but stories still remain.
We rise not from fire, but from fragments of light.

(Each of those is imagined as the final line of its own stanza—read together, they tell a poetic story.)

The Signal Beyond Orion (a line messaging poem)

The sky cracked open with a pulse of blue,
not lightning, but memory dressed in light.
We traced the pulse back to the void,
where silence remembers the first sound.

A girl with copper eyes watched the stars,
her mind tuned to frequencies we’d forgotten.
She spoke in tones we couldn’t record,
where silence remembers the first sound.

Time unraveled in silver threads,
spooling backward through gravity’s grip.
Planets blinked like forgotten dreams,
and echoes outlived the voice that made them.

Her boots left prints on Martian frost,
but no one followed—fear grew roots.
Still, her transmission never ceased:
and echoes outlived the voice that made them.

🌌 Hidden Line Message (the last lines):

where silence remembers the first sound.
where silence remembers the first sound.
and echoes outlived the voice that made them.
and echoes outlived the voice that made them.

You could choose to repeat or slightly vary the lines, as done here, for emphasis and rhythm—or make each entirely unique for a more cryptic message. Want one with steampunk vibes next?

The Clockmaker’s Daughter (a line messaging poem)

Brass wings folded in the shape of dusk,
and smoke curled like secrets through the alley.
She wound her heart with a skeleton key,
for freedom ticks behind forbidden doors.

The city’s gears grind on without grace,
churning time in tarnished teeth and ash.
No one remembers who set the clock,
for freedom ticks behind forbidden doors.

She stitched resistance into her corset seams,
each stitch a vow, each thread a spark.
Her breath fogged the monocle of fate,
and fire sleeps beneath the polished brass.

They came with orders and iron gloves,
but her silence was sharper than steam.
She smiled as the tower struck midnight,
and fire sleeps beneath the polished brass.

🕰️ Hidden Line Message (last lines only):

for freedom ticks behind forbidden doors.
for freedom ticks behind forbidden doors.
and fire sleeps beneath the polished brass.
and fire sleeps beneath the polished brass.

🧠 Want to Try Writing One?

Start with:

Writing a poem with at least 3 stanzas
Ensure each final line connects to form a coherent, secondary message
Read those final lines together — that’s your line message

Feel free to share your attempts with me on Twitter or LinkedIn, and I might feature them in a future post!

🔗 Learn More & Connect:

💬 Final Thoughts

Line Messaging is more than a poetic form — it’s an invitation to look again. As I say in this style, read between the lines.