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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

POEM #1- How to Build a Pyramid

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The Great Pyramid at Giza, Photo by Francesco Gasparetti, found on Wikimedia Commons

 My friend, Mary Lee Hahn, at Year of Reading is once again set to wow the world with her April Poetry offerings. This year, Mary Lee is focusing on "Our Wonderful World" with thirty poems about the wonders of the world. Today's wonder is the Great Pyramid at Giza, the only remaining wonder from the seven original wonders of the world. I'm not promising to keep up with Mary Lee by writing every day (last year it almost killed me!) but I thought I'd at least set sail with her today.

Mary Lee is cross posting her poems at her brand new website, the Poetrepository. Be sure to stop by and check out that gorgeous new site as well.


“How to Build a Pyramid”

So you wish
to link heaven and earth?

First you will need workers,
about one hundred thousand
no, not slaves,
instead use farmers
from the Nile floodplain
the great river
spills its banks
from July to October
and the farmers will be glad
to set stone
in exchange
for sustenance

And then you will need stone
two million
limestone blocks
Five thousand pounds each
extracted from quarries
floated across rivers
dragged over deserts
slid on sledges
up slippery
clay-coated ramps
one stone
set in place
every two minutes
for ten or twenty years
‘til you have
the world’s tallest structure

surely high enough
for the great Khufu
to grab for a little favor

from the gods on high?

© Carol Wilcox, 2014

3 comments:

Mary Lee said...

I love that lead!

Margaret Simon said...

This is a great example of a how to poem. I may borrow it for the letter H. Isn't poetry month awesome? I hope you can keep up and write every day.

Carol Varsalona said...

Poem with facts that speak to me. Enjoyed this reading.