Here is an intriguing poem by Massachusetts poet Ellen Wehle that focuses on ten; it is one of the works collected in Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics (AK Peters/CRC Press, 2008).
The Song of 10 by Ellen Wehle
From the Romans' decem our decibels and decimal system, O tenfold
the sorrows of Israel, Decameron tales mean to be told over ten nights
in December, solstice month frozen in moondrifts of snow. Our fingers
and toes. Kingly ten-pointed stags reigning over Europe's greenwoods,
for miners a measure in tons of coal or type of tallow candle weighted
ten per pound, the legion poor mending by by its light. What else is there
to say? Higher than nine. A number whose power is mighty to multiply,
comprising one and nil, wand and egg, gold spindle and heavenly wheel
of goddess Fate who turns time and tides; what our parents say summer
evenings, hearing our voices dart and flicker in neighboring yards before
we dance from them into darkness and love's rule ends--I'll count to ten.
Posts
