Friday Writings #200: To the Power of Ten

 

  
Hello, dear Word Weavers. Can you believe we’ve already reached late October? The 10th month of the year! Where did the days and weeks all go?

Various quotations and common sayings reveal the significance we attach to the number 10: 

Ten green bottles hanging on the wall … (nursery rhyme / counting rhyme)

To me — old age is always ten years older than I am. Bernard Baruch.

A perfect ten; not touch with a ten-foot pole; ten a penny; ten to one; hang ten; ten-four ...

And some adages:

When angry count to ten before you speak.

Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees. 

We think of 10 as a number of completion, marking the end of a phase or sequence. But really it’s 9 which is the number of ending. 10 is a new beginning, the start of the next sequence or phase.

For your optional prompt this week, I invite you to write something about, or including, the number 10. And/or write a 10-line poem. (Read on.)

  

 

Extra: If you’d like to play with form, there are a number of 10-line poems you could choose, ranging from the simple decastitch, which just means a 10-line poem (no other specifications), through the pirouette poem and the etheree to the complex Sacred Signia. (Just a few of the possibilities. By all means find others if you wish. The Sacred Signia link will lead you to some more of them.) Or you could try the tetractys, based on a 10-syllable rather than 10-line count. My own favourite 10-liner, which I return to often, is the dizain. 

Guidelines: One post per person, 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes), poetry or prose, old or new, on prompt or not. We welcome comments or questions (below) and encourage you to read and respond to each others’ posts. 

Next week: We will invite you to write poetry or prose set on Halloween.