Student Math-Poetry Contest -- submit by 1/20/26

     The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is again sponsoring a Math-Poetry Contest for students -- inviting submission of poems up to 20 lines in length in three admission categories:  

      Middle School      High School       College  

Information about how to submit entries -- along with wonderful results from past contests  -- is available at this link.

     The following poem (which is found online here -- along with other winners) by Nora McKinstry (Edmonds Heights K-12 S) was the Middle School winner in 2025.  

Effects of Counting

      A recent visit to the Poetry Foundation website brought me to poems by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) -- and I counted sadly as I read his poem, "We Are Seven."  I offer its opening stanzas below (and the complete poem -- 17 stanzas -- is available here.) 

We Are Seven       by William Wordsworth

          ———A simple Child,

          That lightly draws its breath,

          And feels its life in every limb,

          What should it know of death?  

Can Poems Affect Students' Math-Attitudes?

     For some students, math is fun BUT . . . if we don't understand something that can keep it from being fun.  For those who DO NOT FIND MATH FUN, it is important for the rest of us to try to change that attitude.  One useful viewpoint is that math need not be treated as an isolated subject . . . it is connected to our lives in VERY MANY ways.  And sometimes, as this blog's postings illustrate, poetry offers non-threatening ways of making connections.

     One of my recent discoveries is the website We Are Teachers where I found a collection of 38 mathy poems -- a dozen for elementary school students and the rest for middle and high students.  Here is a sample from the elementary school group.

Like Poetry, Mathematics is Beautiful -- -- again!

      Fourteen years ago, back in October of 2011, I posted a poem of mine entitled, "Like Poetry, Mathematics is Beautiful" (at this link).  Written more than thirty years ago, this continues to be one of my favorites of my mathy poems.   I offer a portion of it below.

       Like Poetry, Mathematics is Beautiful     by JoAnne Growney

             Timidly I ask
             each one I meet if they
             find mathematics beautiful
             or useful, and each one dares to say,
             "Useful, of course. I use it every day."
             And if I seem to want a proof,
             they all go on to tell  
             that daily they subtract and add
             to keep a checkbook; sometimes also
             they multiply to find how many squares
             they need to tile the kitchen floor.