Lines in My Prime

Erica teaches in the rural town of Vilonia, Arkansas.  She has dedicated over a decade to helping high school students earn college credit for English.  Erica is also the new owner and “fearless leader” of Teach Write and the Teach Write Academy where she spends time with teachers interested in growing as writers through regular workshops and writing events via zoom. She spends her non-writing time in the company of her “grumpy old man” dog, Cooper.

Inspiration

I love poetry that follows certain number patterns or rules, despite previously hating counting syllables.  I enjoy the problem solving it requires to get my thoughts to follow the rules.

Today’s poetry is inspired by that – using poetry and numbers to put structure to the most abstract and ethereal things in life.  It’s a way of capturing that which can’t always be captured in reality – so we use numbers instead.

At the start of 2023, one of our Teach Write members (shout out to Leigh Anne Eck) posted our usual monthly challenge and hosted a writing party.  She invited us to compose a poem about “dreams” and the number “23.” I started playing with a poem that would use the prime numbers as part of the structure since 23 is a prime number.  This is the result.

Process

Compose a poem about an abstract concept using prime numbers for syllable counts in each line.

This is based loosely on a nonet.  Only, instead of nine syllables and lines, I chose to focus on prime numbers for the syllable count and move up.  The first line is two syllables, the next line is three syllables, the next five syllables, etc.

I capped the number of lines to five because at the time I was writing a poem inspired by the year 2023 (2+3 equals 5).  So I wound up with five lines and five prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7, & 11). However, I think you can go up to seven lines if you wanted – adding the prime numbers 13 and 17. 

The first five lines below are from the original version of the poem I wrote for Teach Write, the last two lines were added for VerseLove.

Erica’s Poem

Dreaming
twenty-three
aspirations for
a year of abundance and
filling the space left for me by another.
I am Jack, the beanstalk, and the Giant in one bean
planted and patiently waiting for the dream that sends me to the sky

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe.