Friday, September 1, 2017

Celebrate Kim Roberts with "Six"

     Today is the first of a new month and, as expected, this morning I got an email reminder of the monthly Poetry News that is available at Beltway Poetry.    Founded by poet Kim Roberts in 2000, this quarterly journal provides a vital voice for poetry in the Washington, DC area.  Thanks, Kim!
     The poem by Roberts below is one that I first met while walking along the street in Takoma Park, MD  -- a community that actively promotes the arts.  Roberts' poem "Six" was displayed for my sidewalk reading in honor of National Poetry Month -- and my photo of that display is shown following the printed text of her poem. Enjoy!

       Six    by Kim Roberts

       The number of feet to dig for a coffin.
       The highest roll of the dice.
       The symbol of Venus, goddess of love.
       The atomic number of carbon.
       As a prefix, either hex or sex.
       A group of French composers in the 1920s.  


       The crystal structure of ice.
       Equal to the letters M, N and O.
       A senator’s term of office.
       A bright red stop sign.
       The most efficient shape for circuits.
       The waxy architecture of the honeycomb.

       The smallest positive integer
       that is neither a square number
       or a prime number. The age
       I started the first grade. The number
       of points on a Star of David. The number
       of days it took to create the world.

Kim Roberts is the author of five books of poems, most recently The Scientific Method (WordTech Editions, 2017). She edited the anthology Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC (Plan B Press, 2010), and co-edits the journals Beltway Poetry Quarterly and the Delaware Poetry Review. Her book of walking tours and writers’ portraits, A Literary Guide to Washington, DC from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston will be released in 2018 from the University of Virginia Press.  Visit her website to learn even more.

"Six" by Kim Roberts -- displayed in Takoma Park, MD
 An additional poetic view of six is available here.

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