Thirteen Ways of Looking at Thirteen

No...this is not a picture of the path of Hurricane Irene.  It is a colorful depiction of the original 13 colonies of the United States.  Why?  Read on...

13 Ways of Looking at 13

I.                   Friggatriskaidekaphobia – which is the fear of Friday the 13^th, as is…

II.                Paraskevidekatriaphobia – which is also a fear of Friday the 13^th, not to be confused with…

III.             Triskaidekaphobia – which is a fear of all things related to the number 13, which is the polar opposite of…

IV.             Triskaidekamania – which means you must really, REALLY love the number 13.

V.                There were 13 original colonies in the USA.

VI.              It’s a prime number.

VII.            Apollo 13.  Houston…we’ve got a problem.

VIII.          It’s part of the Fibonacci sequence, which is poetic as well as mathematical.

IX.             Teens can’t wait for this birthday, because then they can proudly announce to the world that they are officially teens.

X.                A deck of regular playing cards has 13 spades, 13 hearts, 13 clubs and 13 diamonds.  In addition to a couple of jokers, of course.

XI.             Most modern American apartment buildings do not have a 13^th floor.

XII.          Ancient Sumerian used a zodiac which consisted of 13 constellations and 26 main stars; the shield of the old Slav divinity Prono was decorated with thirteen white points and there are thirteen cords of the harp in Japan.

XIII.       A Bakers Dozen – If you buy a dozen donuts or bagels, you get one extra donut or bagel, which is always a good – and (as I see it) a lucky thing!

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Notes:  This little list above was written in response to a prompt by We Write Poems. 

The idea was to pen something in the same vein [sort of] as Stevens' 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.'  And just so you know, the picture of the map of the original 13 US colonies was not a test to see if you could identify the states by their shapes.  (Ha!)

            Rather, it was posted in conjunction with my list, but more than that, it is also a message to all my friends who live on the eastern seaboard to please take the advised precautions and to please stay safe.

My Appropos List

Big Tent Poetry posts a prompt on Monday each week.  For this week, the prompt is to write a list poem.

 

If you read my last post, you probably noticed that my last poem had something to do with telephonics, as it applied to my kidlets.  In keeping with this theme, kinda sorta - and because my iPhone was sitting right on my desk in front of me (and I am essentially a lazy person) - I decided 'to poem' about it.  Here goes:

Appsolutely!

It comes with some presets

like iTunes and Clocks

and YouTube and AppStore,

Notes, Weather and Stocks.

Photos and Camera,

Safari and Mail

and Phone and that Calc thing

on page 1 prevail.

But guess what I added

to help me live better,

to organize, game-play

and be a go-getter?

HuffPost and YNAB,

Air Hockey, CraigsPro,

Facebook and Drum Kit

and Hello Vino,

Fruit Ninja, Kindle

and Yatzee and Nook,

Labyrinth, Koi Pond,

iZen Life, iBook,

Dogs Playing Poker,

iNeko, Flash Ready,

Old Booth and – wow! - NASA.

I feel a bit heady.

I’ve got mSecure

and there’s Flixster, More Toast!

and Louvre and Today Show

and movies like Ghost,

Poetry, PeeWee,

Shakespeare, reQall,

MLB dot com

and SketchMee, Skee Ball,

Big Oven, Weird Laws

and yes - Pocket Zoo,

Cooking Asst.,

xFractal, Yahoo!,

Talking Tom, Tongue Twisters

and JotNotPro,

Key Ring and Diptic

and also SpawnGlow,

iBroadway and iChing

and iTarot, too.

NY Times, TV Guide,

CNET Review,

TextPics, ConvertBot

and AAA TripTik,

Paper Toss, Tic Tac Free,

Solitaire, Music,

Pocket Informant,

Doodle Bowl, Glee,

Driver, Dictation

and Van Gogh HD.

I’ve got a few more apps

you might find in Wired,

‘cause clever designers

get truly inspired.

                              

My iPhone? I give props,

with much flattery,

but all of these apps suck down

my battery.

So now I must charge up

my iPhone once more.

But while that goes on,

I’ll check out the App Store

to see what is New/Hot

and what is well, cool.

Just when you think ‘that’s it’

they get a new tool

or game or utility.

Conspicuous consumption

is the latest rage now,

a basic assumption.

So here’s to my smart phone,

which I love to employ.

‘Til something fresh comes out,

it’s my new favorite toy.

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