Day Nine ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2013

Today we honor 9.  3 + 3 + 3  |  3 · 3  |  32.  "Niner" in military phonetics, for clarity in radio communications. In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: nine rings of power given to men, nine members in the Fellowship of the Ring. Nine muses in Greek mythology, including three poetic ones: Calliope (epic poetry), Erato (erotic poetry), and Euterpe (lyric poetry). "Nine is strongly associated with the Chinese dragon, a symbol of magic and power. There are nine forms of the dragon, it is described in terms of nine attributes, and it has nine children" (Wikipedia). As an aficionado of dragons, I'm glad there's a cool connection between dragons and the number 9. In the "official" prompts . . . Maureen Thorson suggests, in NaPoWriMo, "a poem inspired by noir." Robert Lee Brewer gives, in Poetic Asides, a "Two-for-Tuesday prompt": "a hunter poem" and/or "a hunted poem." Today, though, I'm hunting on my own, chasin' down the nines, dressed to the nines in my noir trench coat. Found Poem à la Sylvia Plath The length of a human pregnancy. Planets in the solar system, once. Number of circles in Dante’s Hell. How many lives every cat can have. When you're knitting, a stitch in time saves . . . Days in a Catholic novena. Last digit in Tommy Tutone’s hit. Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to? 8675309 . . . prime. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Want a clue? Sylvia Plath's poem "Metaphors." Hope National Poetry Month is going swimmingly for you. Almost a third of the way through! Ingat, everyone.   ;-) POEM-A-DAY 2013 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30