Day 27 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

As faithful readers may know, this month I've been quoting blog intros from 2013. Well, here's one from 2015: Day Twenty-Seven. As a child, I found 27 enchanting, as I said about 24 recently. The number 27 is equal to 9 x 3, and the digits 2 and 7 in 27 add up to the 9 that's a factor of 27. I'm sure there's something about the number 9 and base 10 that makes 9 so interesting: 9 x 2 = 18 and the digits 1 and 8 add up to 9; 9 x 4 = 36 and the digits 3 and 6 add up to 9; 9 x 859,472 = 7,735,248 and the digits 7, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4, and 8 add up to 36, and then the digits 3 and 6 add up to 9. So 27 is not alone in that adding-up-to-9 thing. I'm sure a mathematician could explain those cool 9-effects clearly. To me it's all glorious mathematical magic. Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “Today we’d like to challenge you to write an 'American sonnet.' What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.” Maureen provides three examples and also an instructional link. Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite a remix poem. Just remix one of your poems. It could be from earlier in this month or even from before this challenge. But take one of your already existing poems and remix it. If it's a sonnet, make it free verse. If it's free verse, try turning it into a triolet or villanelle.” I decided to remix my poem from Day 10, which was on seeing the recent total solar eclipse. That poem was a curtal sonnet and I remixed it into an American sonnet, though I gotta say, I'm not a big believer in the American sonnet, since it's unrhymed . . . to me, rhyming is the heart of the sonnet. However, my curtal sonnet on Day 10 had not been enough space to fit in everything I wanted to say. So, anyway, here we go. Seeing the Total Solar Eclipse For weeks, Renee and I had been talking about driving eight hours to the zone of totality that came closest to us in southeast Missouri. She kept saying we would be able to see a partial eclipse here in Cedar Falls (about 90%). I insisted though, so off we went the day before, sleeping over in St. Louis. We left early the next day, four hours before the total eclipse. The timing was fortunate, because it took over three hours to get through the last 100 miles. Bumper to bumper on the freeway. I thought we wouldn’t make it to the zone in time. We ended up viewing the eclipse in a cemetery in Cape Girardeau. There were cars everywhere. The eclipse was incredibly beautiful. Just a fantabulous ring of light around the dark moon. Truly magical, glorious. Now we’re talking about trekking to Iceland for the 2026 eclipse! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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