Poetry Challenge #150-BRRRING-A-DING-DING
Pennsylvania 6-5000, the telephone number, immortalized in a Glenn Miller Orchestra song, will, to this day, connect you to the front desk of The Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. All you have to do is add on the modern area code.
Let’s break it down: Hotel Pennsylvania is located nearest the Pennsylvania telephone exchange, or PE, named for Penn Station in New York City. So, to reach the hotel in the 1930s, people would dial PE6-5000 or 736-5000, swapping in numbers for letters. Tack on the modern 212 area code and you’ve got a modern, 10-digit phone number. Not so different from what it was in the 1930s.
Poetry Challenge #150
BRRING-A-DING DING!
What’s the first phone number you remember learning? How old were you?
Mine is easy: 747-7747. I was in second grade. To make it easier still, we live at 707 Moraga lane. I think the 707 was a coincidence, but who knows? Back in the days of one-per-house attached phones with curly cords, there well may have been a correlation between house numbers and phone numbers.
Imagine you are calling that first number. Or someone who would have back then, is calling you on that number. Write a Conversation Poem between you and that someone else. And…
Make the number of words in each line the same as that phone number. My poem for example will be 7 lines long. First line 7 words, 2nd line 4, 3rd line 7 and so on. Any zeros are Wild! Writer’s choice! And…
Alternate lines of dialogue as you would in a conversation.
BRRRING! “Hello! Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Pennsylvania 6-5-OH-OH-OH Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge MORE THAN 1563 days ago! (without a miss!!!) We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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