These days we all seem to be attached to our phones. So it seems fitting that we combine telephones with poetry....and write a Telephone Poem.
No, this isn't an ode to our phones (as much as we love our smart phones, dumb phones, or whatever kind of phones we have).
A Telephone Poem uses your phone number as a start-off point to write a poem.
Write your phone number down the left-hand side of a page or screen.
Now write a poem in which each line contains as many words as the number opposite it. The number zero can be no words--an empty line--or it can be a "wild card" to fill any way you want.
I'll make up a phone number (with no area code, so we can't call it): 545-8604. I'm going to use the zero as a "wild card," a line with as many words as I want.
Extreme Tide
5 Yesterday the extreme low tide
4 Exposed the sea stars
5 Clinging to the ferry dock.
8 A little boy told me he'd touched one.
6 "How did it feel?" I asked.
0 "Weird. But fun."
4 Just like the tide.
Writing with a particular form, like a set number of lines, can free up our imagination. That doesn't seem logical, but that's how it works.
Your phone is ringing. It wants its own poem!
