Poetry Friday: A Mathematical Poem

Hello Poets!

Brrrrrr. It's been cold here. I'm hoping February will give us more of a break in the super cold temperatures of late. Thank you, Elizabeth at Unexpected Intersections for hosting the Poetry Friday hearth this week for warming our fingers.

The inklings are responding to a new challenge from Catherine. 

Find Catherine's blog at: Reading to the Core

I enjoyed clicking through the links she provided of inspiration and examples to think consider. I settled on a form I had never heard of before, N +7. This form originated with French mathematician, Francois Lionnais and writer Raymond Queneau who wanted to bring poetry and mathematics together, according to their philosophy of OULIPO. 

The form is explained here. It's pretty easy--a simple constraint. Replace nouns in an existing poem with the seventh noun following it in a dictionary. The fun comes from a poet's choice of dictionaries. 

Here is a golden shovel Catherine wrote in December taking a striking line from Antonio Damasio's book, Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious: 

https://readingtothecore.com/2021/12/30/poetry-friday-the-cycle-continues/ 

When I use the Scholastic Children's Dictionary (Scholastic Inc. 2002) as a constraint, the resulting poem is: 

N+7 poem by Linda after Catherine Flynn's golden shovel

The completed poem is not as fun, perhaps as the process, which was an aha moment for me. This would be a terrific activity to use in a classroom with selected short poems. What a great:

1. Consideration of vibrant language 
2. Close reading
3. Digging into a dictionary with a purpose

4. Talk about what a mathematical formula is

5. Discussion about credit and citing sources

I've already let the Math Coach in my school know I have this activity in my back pocket for a class that might need enrichment or a "different" kind of activity one day. If a class takes me up on it, I'll report back. Thank you, Catherine!

Find more mathematical Inkling poems:
Reflections on the Teche
My Juicy Little Universe
Nix the Comfort Zone
A(noth)er Year of Reading

Speaking of reporting back, I have read Marilyn Nelson's book, Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculpture's Life (Little, Brown and Company 22). It is as wonderful as I expected it to be. Nelson had very little primary source material to work with. Yet, the poetry rings true from Savage's art and recorded experience. I highly recommend giving it a read. My knowledge of art history has been broadened. That would make Ms. Savage happy.

Oh, stargazers. This image was one of the very first I saw that called out to me as a one-little-word, star. 

Down-Adown-Derry by Walter de la Mare. Illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop. 1922

Isn't it beautiful? As it turns out, Dorothy P. Lathrop did not get paid for this 1922 illustration! But, it and others for the book did launch her career. 

See the poem inspired by it over on the Star padlet.

Oh, oh, oh! If you get The Slowdown podcast, take a listen to today's poem--The Extravagant Stars by Nicole Callahan. Oh, my stars!

The Extravagant Stars by Nicole Callihan

Everybody says the stars are dead. By the time the light reaches us blah blah blah. As if the light itself is not enough— Or maybe everybody says most stars are dead? Or some of the people say all the stars are dead, and all of the people say some of the stars are dead. Is the sun dead? I don’t know. I can’t remember. 1 in 2 women can’t remember 1 in 2 things. I have all these “facts” in my “head.” hear the rest on the podcast: