John Anderson Poet Lyric

Notes About The Poem

SYSTEM AT A GLANCE
ONE DAY = 12 NEW HOURS
The hour hand makes one full revolution in 24 hours.
ONE NEW HOUR = 120 MINUTES
1 new hour equals 2 conventional (old) hours.
ONE MINUTE = 60 SECONDS
Minutes and seconds remain the same as today.
MINUTES IN BASE 12 (DOZENAL)
Digits used: 0–9, X (ten), ? (eleven).

HOW DOZENAL MINUTES WORK
A new hour has 120 minutes.
They are written using two dozenal digits.
00, 01, 02 ... 09, 0X, 0?,
10, 11, 12 ... 9X, 9? = 119
Next minute → next hour
6:9? → 7:00

IMPORTANT DISTINCTION
12/0 is a special label on the clock face for midnight/zero.
It is not used in dozenal counting.
After 0? comes 10, not 12/0.
In base 12, the next number after eleven is 10.

SOME FAMILIAR TIMES
24-HOUR → NEW TIME
00:00 → 12/0:00
02:00 → 1:00
06:00 → 3:00
06:30 → 3:26
13:00 → 6:50
13:30 → 6:76
13:45 → 6:89
14:00 → 7:00
18:00 → 9:00
22:00 → 11:00
24:00 → 12/0:00

Example:
13:45 conventional = 6:89 new time.
105 minutes after noon = 89 in dozenal.
12/0 = MIDNIGHT
6 = NOON
ONE REVOLUTION = ONE DAY
NO AM • NO PM • NO THREE-DIGIT MINUTES
Same day. Same minutes. Different way of seeing time.

Listen to poem:

Brussels Again - NEW CLOCK, NEW TIMES for 2028

Long before decimals ruled our measures, twelve kept appearing.
in fingers, trade, astronomy, calendars, measures and the marketplace.
Dozenal thinkers sought numbers that divided without awkward remainders,
Making everyday fractions simpler to reckon, share, and understand.

Twelve divides where ten so often leaves a remainder.
Halves, thirds, and quarters settle cleanly into their places.
Nature turns through circles, seasons, moons, and branching symmetries,
So twelve feels less imposed, more symmetrical along the way.

Our clock already whispers twelve around its familiar face.
Yet it makes the same slow journey twice every day.
Let one complete revolution become one complete earthly day.
Midnight begins at zero, while six becomes High Noon.

Each new hour now contains two hours we once knew.
One hundred and twenty familiar minutes passing at familiar speed.
Minutes keep their sixty seconds; nothing smaller needs changing.
Only the hour stretches wider across the turning day.

But counting one hundred and twenty, needs an awkward third digit.
So Dozenal notation gives those minutes two neat places.
After nine come 'X' for ten, then barred eleven (11),
Then ten means twelve, and counting quietly carries onward.

Thus half-way through an hour appears simply as fifty,
Thirty familiar minutes become twenty-six on the display.
At thirteen forty-five (1345), the new clock reads six eighty-nine (6:89).
Strange briefly, until the pattern becomes a better, simpler language.

Twelve-over-zero '12/0' stands apart, a sign rather than arithmetic.
Midnight wears twelve's old coat while beginning again at zero.
No morning 'am' suffix, nor afternoon 'pm' suffix, dividing each day.
The clock hand tells where we stand within one revolution each day.

We keep our minutes, seconds, habits, meals and appointments.
But give the whole day one continuous, undivided journey.
Fewer conventions remain, while useful divisions become much easier,
And time, in time, may simply make more sense, one fine day.

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