Zero plus anything is . . .

     Poet Jane Hirshfield is an award-winning poet, essayist and translator whose work and I admire and enjoy.  In her collections I have found a thoughtful share of poems with links to mathematics -- and links to my previous postings of her work may be found here.  The MATH theme collection at poets.org has led me to another of her poems and I offer its opening stanzas here:

     Zero Plus Anything Is a World      by Jane Hirshfield

     Four less one is three.

     Three less two is one.

     One less three
     is what, is who,
     remains.     

     The first cell that learned to divide
     learned to subtract.

     Recipe:
     add salt to hunger.

     Recipe:
     add time to trees.

     Zero plus anything
     is a world.
       . . .

And the rest of Hirshfield's poem is available here.