The Twelve Apostles are unique rock formations on the southern Australian coast
in the Port Campbell National Park.

Hello and Welcome Back after Summer Break, dVersians! Lisa here, pub tending and offering any snack you can imagine from the magic cupboard. This Monday is where You and Your Muse are prompted to write a Quadrille. The name for the quadrille form is taken from an 18^th Century dance, but as you may know, is also dVerse’ poetic form of just 44 words (not counting the title) and includes one word the host provides to you.

Not only that but this week is dVerse’ Twelfth Anniversary Celebration. Although I immediately recognize twelve years is a significant amount of time for a virtual poetry group to keep on keepin’ on, because my mind loves to go down the rabbit hole, I wanted to learn more about why twelve has such powerful juju.

Tidbits from wikipedia:

For math minds, twelve is a “superior highly composite number,” divisible by the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is the smallest abundant number, since it is the smallest integer for which the sum of its proper divisors (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 = 16) is greater than itself, and the second semi-perfect number, since there is a subset of the proper divisors of 12 that add up to itself.

Notably, twelve is the number of full lunations in a solar year, hence the number of months in a solar calendar, as well as the number of signs in the Western and the Chinese zodiac. Twelve is also the number of years for an orbital period of Jupiter.

The number twelve carries religious, mythological and magical symbolism, generally representing perfection, entirety, or cosmic order in traditions since antiquity. In ancient Greek religions The Twelve Olympians are the principal gods of the pantheon; they were preceded by twelve Titans, and Hercules carries out twelve labors. In Judaism, Ishmael – the first-born son of Abraham – has twelve sons/princes, and Jacob also has twelve sons, who are the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. In Christianity, there are twelve disciples. In Hinduism, there are twelve Jyotirlinga (Self-formed Lingas) of Lord Shiva in Hindu temples across India according to the Shaiva tradition. In Norse religion, the chief Norse god, Odin, has twelve sons. In Muslim religion, in Twelver Shi’a Islam, there are twelve Imams, legitimate successors of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

Twelve is the largest number with a single-syllable name in English. In prose writing, twelve, being the last single-syllable numeral, is sometimes taken as the last number to be written as a word, and 13 the first to be written using digits. There is a plethora of poetry, literature, music, film, television, and theater that include twelve in their title or their content.

Poetry forms that have twelve lines include rondeau, rondeau prime, patrol, parallelogram de crystalline, manardina, cyclus, wavelet, rosemary, douzet, cycle, caryotte, minuette, kerf, cromorna, bragi, rondine, renrhyme, barbee, arkquain, dorsimbra, hexaduad and inverted hexaduad, imaginaerium, minute, and I’m sure there are many more.

Common synonyms for twelve include dozen, midnight, high noon, boxcars. Think about how varied each of their meanings are from each other; and each having its focused power.

Browsing for twelve-themed poems, I came across this beauty:

Twelve Twelve Twelve
By Aimee Nezhukumatathil
a.) When I was twelve, I lived
on the grounds of a mental asylum.

b). My Filipino mother was a psychiatrist,
so that meant we lived
in the doctor’s quarters—
one of the three big brick houses
that edged the institute.

c). My younger sister and I practiced Herkies—
our favorite cheerleading jumps—
off the patients’ bleachers near the softball field.

d). When I was twelve, I aced
the experiments
with celery and food coloring;
they let me skip a whole grade
and get right to The Dissections.

e). I secretly wished my supply
of grape Bubble Yum would never run out
but I couldn’t figure out how to blow bubbles
and snap the lavender gum like Sara could.

f). We sold gift wrap and crystals
for a junior high fund-raiser and my mom still asks
Where are all the crystals I bought?
and
Why don’t you display them in your house?

g). When I was twelve, I worried about
the darkening hair on my legs.
My mother bought me my first training bra—
no cup, just little triangle pieces stitched together—
and then a slice of New York-style cheesecake
to bring home.

h). Home.

i). When I was twelve, our house
always smelled of fried lumpia
or ginger.

j). We had zinnias
as wide as my outstretched hand
nodding at us in our garden.

k). My school had to create
a whole new bus stop
just for my sister and me,
and everyone stopped talking and stared
when we stepped onto the bus each morning,
smelling of grape gum and ginger roots.

l.) Just who are these girls?

Once again, we have come to the place where you put your proverbial pen to paper and warm it with your poetic spirit’s will in words.

• Pen us a poem of precisely 44 words (not counting the title), including some form of the word twelve.
• Post your Quadrille piece on your blog and link back to this post.
• Place the link to your actual post (not your blog url) on the Mister Linky page.
• Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy.
• Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts!
• Have fun (but only if you want to!)