Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I belong to several writing groups (Pennwriters, Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group, and Behind Our Eyes) and subscribe to a multitude of newsletters and mailing lists. Every day, interesting tidbits drop into my inbox from everywhere, The New York Times to LitHub. (If you identify as a writer and don’t know Literary Hub, do yourself a favor and pause, and click here to explore.)

Some of these emails are so ingrained into my routine that they spark reactions just by arriving. I am specifically thinking of Tiffany Yates Martin and her Thursday newsletter, because every week it surprises me and I say to myself, “Is it Thursday already?”

Poetry about Place: Zip Odes

The Behind Our Eyes list for writers with disabilities sent out an email about Zip Odes— a form of poetry that offers homage to place by determining the numbers of words or syllables on a line to the numbers in a zip code.

Apparently, the form traces its origins to O, Miami! and WLRN, the public radio station in the area.

From the O, Miami! web site:

About

Invented in 2015, the ZipOde is a five-line poem about where you live, written in the form of your zip code. O, Miami, and WLRN host an annual initiative to collect ZipOdes every Spring, but the form has also traveled all around the United States, including Orlando, Toledo, and Boston, and has been featured on media outlets such as The Takeaway and The Washington Post.

We welcome organizations, educators, and media outlets using the ZipOde as a free, open-source tool to connect with their communities. All we ask is that you please credit the invention of the ZipOde to O, Miami Poetry Festival, and WLRN.

My right-hand woman and editor-poet-essayist friend Nancy Scott (who calls every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and signals certain markers of time similarly to Tiffany) and I discussed our thoughts on the Zip Ode, as we both live in 18042. The materials we saw said to skip the zero and I had to challenge that, wondering if the zero could be used as a stanza break instead.

My next thought questioned if we could string several zip codes together to create a geographical history. For instance, could I tell the story of my life with a first stanza based on 18343, the zip code of my childhood home, and then move to 18018, where I attended college, and perhaps do three stanzas of 18042, as I have had three homes in two towns within that zip code.