42 Days of 42: Day 10 - Adventures in Googling

Forty-Two (Adventures in Googling)

Forty-two is an abundant number,
the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything,
version one-point-six is the easiest way to convert a DVD into an AVI movie,
a bidding domino game,
scientific facts about the demise of forty-two have been largely exaggerated,
an Athenian software company,
Mr. Forty-Two Roads is back from his conference in Switzerland!
a fresh art gallery in Door County, Wisconsin,
another Apted film
a number in a George Bellows painting
forty-two pages in
(yes, I go that far)
I hit the goldmine:

Forty-Two new condos in the Old First Ward
Forty-two million iPods. Which is mine?
i am a forty-two year old female that had braces as a teen.

And there are forty-two reasons to stop this poem.

42 Days of 42: Day 9 - Beginnings

For tea to have a calming effect,
For teetotalers to quit their vice,
For thee to speaketh in a modern tongue,
One must have
Fortitude.

42 Days of 42: Day 8 - 42 Down

42 Down

The answer to 42 Down eludes me
and 42 Across is a scientific term
and I was never any good at science.
So I circle backwards, looking
at all the clues,
the witty puns masquerading
as answers
and I am having no luck.
I am blind to knowledge
and it is a grid
mocking me
calling me ignorant
and I pull my hair.
Is this the beginning
Of the end?
Oh, if only I had known
the answer
to 42 Down.
If only.

42 Days of 42: Day 7 - $1814 Per Square Foot

$1814 Per Square Foot

I drove forty-two miles
to 635 West 42nd Street,
Unit 42-A.
Approximately 1042 square feet,
I would have to work forty-two lifetimes
to afford the mortgage
but oh, what a view!
The sunset alone would make me forget
I'm forty-two.

42 Days of 42: Day 6 - Shall I Rest on the Seventh Day?

Six days in and I look at all that I have created.
Shall I rest on the seventh day?

By the time that the Lord had toiled for six full days,
would it be a stretch to say
that forty-two just-born species
went extinct?

Another one vanished since you started reading this poem.
Nothing big like the albino rhino or the pink skink,
but perhaps, the forty-second generation
of a tapeworm
or a fruit fly
or some rare fish
no one has ever seen,
forty-two thousand leagues under the sea.

42 Days of 42: Day 5 - Haiku 42

Un(fort)unatel(y)
my waste is expanding, (two),
that's just how it is.

42 Days of 42: Day 4 - Behind the (4x2)-Ball

I am trying to catch up but,
at forty-two,
I am not as fast
on my poetic feet.

42 Days of 42: Day 3 - An Acrostic

Fascination with one's age
outweighs any
reasonable attempt
to cling to
youth.
-
Tell me,
why do we have to get
old?

42 Days of 42: Day 2 - Forty-Two Facebook Friends

Forty-two Facebook friends will read this poem in the next forty-two hours.

Forty-two Facebook friends make me smile just by being back in my life.

Forty-two Facebook friends haven't made a peep since accepting my friend request.

Forty-two Facebook friends have seen me naked.

Forty-two Facebook friends are going to un-friend me after reading this poem, feeling somehow indirectly insulted.

Forty-two Facebook friends wouldn't recognize me if they passed me on the street.

Forty-two Facebook friends have never been to Forty-Second Street.

Forty-two Facebook friends use their children as their profile pictures.

Forty-two Facebook friends went to my 20th college reunion.

I have Forty-two Facebook friends in common with Forty-two Facebook friends, but that is all.

Forty-two Facebook friends have severe financial problems.

Forty-two Facebook friends are rich.

Forty-two Facebook friends are single.

Forty-two Facebook friends disappeared in 1989 but reemerged twenty years later.

Forty-two Facebook friends have tattoos.

Forty-two Facebook friends have come to New York and left without saying hello.

Forty-two Facebook friends gained weight.

Forty-two Facebook friends have grayed.

Forty-two Facebook friends are strangers I met on the street.

Forty-two Facebook friends are poets.

Forty-two Facebook friends accepted my friend request because we had Forty-two Facebook friends in common.

If I could convince Forty-two Facebook friends to each give me $42.00, I'd be on to something.

At some point in my life, I have been madly in love with Forty-two Facebook friends, but now I only love my wife.

Forty-two Facebook friends wonder what it would be like if it had worked out with me.

Forty-two Facebook friends are better off having gone their separate ways.

Forty-two Facebook friends probably think I'm being too hard on myself.

Forty-two Facebook friends have eight-four hands and four hundred and twenty toes.

Forty-two Facebook friends are admirable.

Forty-two Facebook friends are not.

I owe an apology to Forty-two Facebook friends for various wrong-doings over the years.

Forty-two Facebook friends would most likely forgive me.

Several of my Forty-two Facebook friends have poems written about them, but they don't know it.

When I make general statements about Forty-two Facebook friends, I speak with 42% accuracy, with a margin of error of 42%.

Forty-two Facebook friends wished me a happy birthday on my Facebook wall.

Forty-two Facebook friends did not.

Forty-two Facebook friends who I have never met in person are better friends than Forty-two Facebook friends who I have.

Forty-two Facebook friends think that last line was awkward.

Forty-two Facebook friends have had drinks with me.

Forty-two Facebook friends have not.

Forty-two Facebook friends have Forty-two Facebook friends have Forty-two Facebook friends, ad infinitum.

Forty-two Facebook friends wonder if this poem will ever end.

I tell Forty-two Facebook friends that it will, after forty-two lines.

42 Days of 42: Day 1 - Forty-Two Words for Forty-Two

In honor of my forty-second birthday, I will attempt to post for the next forty-two days, forty-two poems. These poems will have something to do with the number 42. I don't promise anything great, but if you like what you see, please stoke my ego and leave a comment.

Today begins the experiment.

If you're curious, you can see how I celebrated 41 on BillyBlog here.

And forty, here.

And away we go....

FORTY-TWO WORDS FOR FORTY-TWO

Twenty-one was
half a lifetime ago.
What will my life be like
at eighty-four?

The thought
harasses me
silently.

Birthdays
are like poems.
Great ones
are memorable.
But most are not.

Forty-two words
are two too few
and,
two too many,
too.