What follows is a brief overview of the Zip Ode poetic form.
A Zip Ode poem gets its structure from the postal code of a place: zip (c)ode. Each number of the postal code must correspond to the number of words in each line of the poem.
Maybe the Zip Ode is a form for the poet to use to establish relations with a well-known location, like a visitor’s center for the regulars. All the citizens of a place could write Zip Odes to the place without exhausting its possibilities.
Let’s use an example Vermillion, South Dakota: 57069.
Vermillion, South Dakota
An ant carries the dead body (5 words)
of a smaller ant, over me, home. (7 words)
(0 words)
I sent back my American husband (6 words)
alone, alive. Prairie rolls those slow flanks: endless now. (9 words)
Variations I have thought to try: and even you might like to try them.
- Instead of using the zip code’s digits to determine word count per line, try using the digits to guide the syllable count per line.
- Count all “0”s as “10”s
- Check your address on the USPS website to find out the extra four digits at the end of your place’s Zip Code, and write a 9-line poem instead of a 5-line poem.
