A grook ("gruk" in Danish) is a form of short aphoristic poem. It was invented by the Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein. He wrote over 7,000 of them, most in Danish or English, published in 20 volumes. Some say that the name is short for "GRin & sUK" ("laugh & sigh" in Danish), but Piet Hein said he felt that the word had come out of thin air.
His gruks first started to appear in the daily newspaper "Politiken" shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940 under the signature Kumbel Kumbell. The poems were meant as a spirit-building, yet slightly coded form of passive resistance against Nazi occupation duringWorld War II. The grooks are characterized by irony, paradox, brevity, precise use of language, sophisticated rhythms and rhymes and often satiric nature.
THE ROAD
TO WISDOM?
Well,
it's plain
and
simple to express.
Err and
err and err again,
but less
and less and less.
Example
Poem
Certainty
(Grook)
Most everything is
cut and dried
for people who are
dogma-fied.
(c) Lawrencealot
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