This is an exercise that was given in the poetry course I am taking. I thought I would share it here. And then show you what I did. The exercise goes like this: Find a dictionary and write down your birthdate- for example: 3-15-81 (this is not mine by a long shot !)
So now write down all the in-line permutations of your birthdate. These will lead you to pages in the dictionary. In this example they would be: 3, 15, 81 31, 58, 1 315 581 158 1581 3158 depending on how big your dictionary is
Now write down the first and last word from each of these pages In this case there would be 20 words. The assignment is to write a poem from these words using all the words.
To determine the length of your poem you need to add all the numbers of the date. In this case 3+1+5+8+1 So for this example the poem would be 18 lines. I think this is less important than using the words, but should at least give you a length to aim for.
Lori if you want to put this up as a challenge in the challenge section feel free to move it. It would be fun to see what comes out of this.
Here is my example:
Acadia
Acadia, of my ancestors the land of burdock and lamb’s quarters solomon’s seal and twisted stalk, lady’s slipper and slippery elm, an anarchy of woodland and weeds It sings of its own accord,
a chord to arouse the heart, a part of me that longs to the accession of its thorny throne, an altar of my own carved from the burl of its wood. The need to stay, the need to go. An armistice before I choose
like Adonis, his Aphrodite or his Persephone. What is the attraction of such places? The spaces of time ablate the need to feed on life’s abduction. I sacrifice myself like Alcestis to Admetus. like grasses that bend to the breeze
together, laminal, an accessory to the pull and draw. I saw an island in the bay, that day an anagram of itself. Dark before light. Moonrise to sunset. All of it a montage in the monopoly of your arms.
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List of dictionary words: Acadia accession accessory accord abduct ablate Admetus Adonis altar anagram anarchy armistice arouse attraction burdock burl laminal land monopoly montage
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