Asker of Ask
May the force of May the 4th always be with you…in normal and pandemic.
Take the number:
your turn in line.
Hold your question
wait to align.
One and one and
expectation.
One asks for more
education.
Curious to
know an answer?
Manifest your
geomancer!
All unknowns need
divination.
Divide by two —
accept the ration.
NOTES REGARDING THE CREATION OF THIS POEM: The inspiration for this poem about uncertainty was inspired by these events.
One. Poet Kate Gray gave writers a “last call” this morning — there will be no more 9 am PST calls to meditate, write, and listen to the “goodday story” of a poem. Our final prompt was “ I am asking you,” and the poem she recited was Ada Limon’s “The End of Poetry,” that was published on April 27, 2020 in The New Yorker. Because I ask what feels like a billion or more questions per 24-hour period (yes, I do ask questions during sleep…we all do!), I ‘got’ the wordmath of the “ask.” Thanks forever to Kate Gray and her effort to keep writers in touch with each other and themselves during this strange time in human history.
Two. I believe that I suffered the ravages of COVID-19 in late December via exposure through a loved one from Seattle who came to visit and was sick with the relevant symptoms on arrival. I’ve not been able to be tested for antibodies yet, but I did have a unique opportunity to ask a psychic if what I suspected about my illness was true.
Three. While I was writing this poem, my best friend (who was ill in early March) reported that she’d just received news that her test revealed a positive for COVID-19 antibodies. Happy birthday to her. (Yes, the results arrived on that day.)
Four. Ah…four! This is a reminder that the number four is always a good answer to any question. Why? Four are the corners of a square. Four syllables per line set up an interesting structure for a poem. Four lines per stanza create nice little stepping stones in a poem. Four stanzas per poem create an atom that can be split — which creates expansive, powerful energy — in ways that are positive in that they are not destructive.
May the fours be with you, dear readers, friends, humans, and of course, my fellow editors here on the four words that built No Crime in Rhymin’, Joe Váradi, Harper Thorpe, and Laura Sheridan.
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