Whitney Boeckel's poem is untitled:
Calculations running through my head
The probability of making it.
Reaching for the wall.
Extending towards the infinity
The variables I
can’t control
Swarming exponentially
Trying to divide them
Faster than they multiply
Equally exhausting
But the solution is there
Waiting to be proven.
Nerve by Olivia Lantz
Infinite people shouting to be heard equals
greater music that adds and subtracts
from the integral event of exposing yourself
to simplify.
Look to introduce yourself, make the most.
Divide the room up and people multiply.
Young actors gather within parentheses
hoping to gain more or less dreams.
Notes at the ends of the poems in Glaz's file tell us that Whitney Boeckel had swimming in mind as she wrote and Lantz was thinking of rehearsals for "Midsummer Night's Dream." The complete file of 14 student poems is available here. Also, I offer below the exercise by Carol Dorf that Glaz used to prompt these poems:
Write 3 situations from your life (I usually model this with
situations from my life, 1 significant/serious and 1 like a trip or something
not emotional.)
Write 10 mathematical words from something you've studied
recently. With a group you then have everyone share their words and they can
"borrow" any words of interest.
Circle one of the situations.
Write for a specified period of
time (10 min is usually about right) describing the situation using as many
words from your list as possible.
This student activity formulated by Dorf also is included in an article in the Proceedings for the 2013 Bridges Conference. Dorf is poetry editor for TalkingWriting.com and has gathered a variety of poetry-with-math resources in this online journal.
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