Reversible Verse

      A recent discovery that I have found fascinating is a reversible poem -- a poem with word/line choices that read the same from the last to the first as from the first to the last.  Author Marilyn Singer offers the following sample on her website from her collection Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse Poems – illustrated by Josee Masse; Dutton/Penguin, 2010.

In this unique collection of reversible verse, classic fairy tales are turned on their heads. Literally. Read these clever poems from top to bottom. Then reverse the lines and read from bottom to top to give these well-loved stories a delicious new spin.  Word patterns remain the same -- with changes only in punctuation and capitalization.

                    IN REVERSE       by Marilyn Singer     

Technology and Poetry and . . .

Recently I found this online article in the Bangi News:

            Why poetry has lost its lustre in the modern world

It offers the following forlorn math-and-poetry view:

          Today, with schools pushing 
           math and science over the arts, 
           poetry feels like an old, boring puzzle.
           Why spend time decoding a poem 
           when you can watch a 15-second reel 
           that makes you laugh?   

Is this view useful?      Explore more in the Bangi News here.   

Pope Leo was a Mathematics Major . . .

      Recently I learned via a post on X -Twitter by Anthony Bonato (@Anthony_Bonato) that the new Roman Catholic Pope Leo was, in college, a math major.  (For Wikipedia's info on Pope Leo, follow this link.)  I celebrate this with one of my favorite poetic forms, a syllable-count triangle.

         Math
         is a
         discipline
         that can prepare
         for leadership and 
         holiness -- Pope Leo!

Count the votes . . .

      Today I have been thinking about election results and the role that non-voters have in deciding elections and I have shaped my words into the following syllable-count triangle:

          Count
          the votes.
          Elections
          are decided
          by we who vote -- and
          also by those who don't!  

Poems to Enjoy on YouTube

     This is a quick and brief post BUT its shortness may give you some time to explore these richly populated links:  

         Math Poems on YouTube;

        Math Songs for Kids -- on YouTube.

Bridging Worlds with Mathematics

      Each year the Association for Women in Mathematics holds an essay contest -- inviting middle school and high school and college students each to interview a math woman and to write about it.  The names of 2025 contest winners -- and links to their essays -- are available here at this link.

     One of my delights as I browsed through the contest results was to find male as well as female essay winners.  Here is a link to "Bridging Worlds through Mathematics"  -- an essay by Alan Zhang of Francis Richmond Middle School, telling of an interview with Alena Erchenko (Dartmouth College), that won first place in the Grades 6-8 contest group.  And this link leads to "Where Dreams Can Take You" -- an essay by Peter Holman of Frances C, Richmond Middle School telling of an interview with Kim Luke (Simbex).