Blog Reflection 4: Number Poem

Number Poem

Base your number poem on a sequence of numbers important to you—a social Security number, a zip code, a date (written in numerals: e.g., 10-31-1924), an address, telephone number, lucky numbers… The sequence you choose sets the pattern of syllables for you poem.

Step 1. Select a sequence of numbers important to you.

Step 2. To get language for your poem, jot down images and scenes that connect with you number: people, faces, actions, moments, scenes. Then, lay out your pattern of lines and syllables, as above. Work “the meat” of your jottings into your pattern, changing language as necessary to fit the counts. In short, connect content and form.

Examples:
(LINE #)	(Syllables)	CALL
(1)	XXXXXX	Tacked alongside this phone
(2)	XXX	a friend’s face.
(3)	XXXXXX	I cannot say his name
(4)	XXXX	yet know him well.
(5)	XXXXXXXXXX	One night he disappeared, as light from fire,
(6)	XXXXXXX	went out for good. Still, I’ll
(7)	XXXXX	know him when he calls.

PHONE

If you

Would like to know my phone number, you Will need to

Count the syllables in each sentence. With what you get there

PLEASE REMEMBER

If the phone rings after midnight, with a lonesome voice calling to

you, please remember there is

someone far from home tonight who needs your words of friendship.

--Sadie Tirmizi (444-4786)

NIGHT SOUNDS

And now

The cricket chirps Outside my door again—

His song will pierce my thoughts and dreams Tonight.

--Glynn Bridgewater

775-9184

The phone sits here, black and hard

As charcoal waiting to flame when you call me up

And your words begin their hot, bright fires. Well,

Nothing’s burning now at this end. Afraid? Afraid?

--Robert King