X - X
X
X for kisses.
O for hugs.
Shouldn’t it be
flipped?
We cross our arms to
hug another.
An O our mouths when
lipped.
©2019 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved
Untitled Golden Shovel
Writers' Pantry #52 https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2021/01/writers-pantry-52-years-beginning.html I've been playing with some new, to me, poetry forms. April is the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, and my plans are A-Z of poetry forms. I like to get a head start, especially since I also participate on my other blog. This is a Golden Shovel. It was created by Terrance Hayes, an award-winning poet and professor in New York. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/terrance-hayes The "rules" are: take lines, or one line, from an existing poem take each word and use it, in order, as an end word in your new poem give credit My poem uses the words from the last line of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Time Does Not Bring Relief (Sonnet II), "and so stand stricken so remembering him." I had told him “yes” already, and it’s too late to change that now, so I let my words stand though I am stricken at the thought. I am so cr
Good point!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Actually, the origin makes sense. It has to do with kissing the cross, as well as the symbol X for a signature, then kissed.
DeleteVery nice poem. And yes, the X was for Christians and the O was for Jews. Not only is that where we got hugs and kisses, it's also where we got tic-tac-toe. The "mark" of your religion was also for signatures because literacy was illegal for a long time in many places, so people couldn't write their name.
ReplyDeleteJ Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author
I'd heard that history of O is apocryphal, but it could be. Of course, the X or cross was used centuries before the time of Christ, they "borrowed" it!
DeleteI find the history of words, holidays, and traditions fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
Totally makes sense! I have always wondered about this.
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary
It does make sense. Lots of things do once you find out the origins. As you probably know, what with so many stories having at least a kernel of history in them!
DeleteI think you've called this one correctly! And made me smile to boot.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Delete