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In Bingo, the ‘legs eleven’ call refers to the 2 leggy uprights which constitute the written number. In Old English we have ęndleofon linguistically connected to the number 11 in every Germanic language form. It is its own number as opposed to the compound forms such as the Greek hendeka (hen, the neuter of one/heis) + deka ten. One of our prompts below uses this but first some ‘elevensie’ poems, beginning with Anne Sexton’s “Menstruation at 40”:

“I was thinking of a son.
The womb is not a clock 
nor a bell tolling, 
but in the eleventh month of its life 
I feel the November 
of the body as well as of the calendar.

In two days it will be my birthday
and as always the earth is done with its harvest.
This time I hunt for death, 
the night I lean toward, 
the night I want”...[more]

Whilst Gisela Kraft employs an incremental numerical poem: “absence or a record of the creation of a fabulous animal”:

“on the first day you were beautiful and good
on the second you grew a horn 
on the third a lead-gray wing budded 
from your shoulder 
on the fourth a claw sprouted from your shoe 
on the fifth you flew 
right into my armpit 
built a nest and then lost interest 
on the sixth you were a host of leeches 
having their way with my veins 
on the seventh I heard you 
trotting above me with hollow hoof beats 
on the eighth you went to moses to ask for advice 
winged horned buraq the prophet’s steed 
returned as a lamb on the ninth 
to graze on my belly fur 
on the tenth you died for isaac 
the angel decided in favor of animal testing 
on the eleventh I had forgotten the color of your eyes”... [more]

And as today is 11th June we are taking one of those two legs and choosing one or other of these:

1. The Hendecastich by Michael Fantina

  • 11 line poem
  • 1 stanza
  • alternates iambic feet of four (tetrameter) and one (monameter)
  • i.e. syllables: 8-2-8-2-8-2-8-2-8-2-8
  • rhyme scheme: abbacddceff


Note: I can ony find 1 reference to this form here so it does not seem to have taken off – maybe some of us might give it a whirl

2. The Eleventh Power by Christina Jussaume,

  • 11 line poem
  • 1 stanza
  • 11 syllables per line
  • rhyme scheme of abababccddd or ababababccc,
  • an uplifting theme

Back in 2022 Grace gave us this prompt so do read her full explanation here (and I note her expo allows for more than 1 stanza of 11 lines).

Once you have written and posted your poem, according to the guidelines above, do add it to Mr Linky below then go visiting and reading other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.
Please also TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your poem that leads readers back to this dVerse prompt

[N.B. Mr Linky closes Saturday 3 p.m. EST]