Geometry List Poem

      Mike Ferguson (America-born but long-time Brit) is a retired teacher of English and creative writing AND a poet.  I offer one of his poems below (a poem developed from a list and found here in Ferguson's blog, gravyfromthegazebo).    Not only is Ferguson's poem mathy and thought-provoking, but it also can be a useful example to use with students.  One of the effective strategies to use to discover and gather thoughts on a particular topic is to create a list.  The activity of writing the list often leads to additional creative thinking and -- if a poem is a goal -- the list can become poetic.  If you've never done so, try it!

ADDING -- a List Poem

      Via an X (Twitter) posting by poet and blogger Marian Christie (@marian_v_o), I learned about a blog by writer Mike Ferguson entitled Gravy from the Gazebo -- available at this link.  Ferguson has posted a series of mathy list poems -- starting on November 10 with "Adding list poem".  The poem's opening lines are offered below and the complete poem is found at this link. 

The poem is introduced with these words:   Love a list poem, this is my latest – the kind of content and ideas I would like to introduce to students for writing their own:

Opening lines of a poem by Mike Ferguson -- the rest is here.

Ferguson next offered more lists: "Subtracting list poem" at this link AND "Multiplying list poem" at this link AND "Dividing list poem" at this link.

Read.  Reread.  Share.  Write your poetic response.  Share!