A text message poem is simply a poem of less than 160 characters in length, that can therefore fit into an SMS text message. Beyond that it can be as similar, or as different, to any other poem on paper as the writer wants to make it. However, simply by choosing to be less than 160 characters in length, text message poems reflect the shape of language as it is being used at the start of the 21st century.

For writers, the restrictions of text messages are also what makes them productive. Having rules and barriers to overcome sets them free – creation becomes a game, a test of ingenuity – 'How can I fit this into 160 characters? What is the truth of this event, what really needs to be said?'

Getting a poem sent to your mobile phone is a strange and powerful way to read poetry.

Text messages can catch us in absent minded, in-between corners of the day – if we are doing something important we'll turn the phone off. These are the moments when we can be most affected by the truthfulness of poetry.

Readers of our SMS poetry collection Text Messages, have found that the poems sometimes coincide with what they are doing at the time the message is delivered – a poem about a station arrives as they wait for a train – and the 'live' nature of getting a text message gives an unexpected, almost supernatural charge to the words.