Occasionally I Google the pair "mathematics, poetry" to see what a web search can find for me. Many of the sites found this way are familiar -- including this blog and poetry I have cited herein. But a few days ago I found a new site -- posted by the New England Literary Resource Center and featuring poems by a GED teacher Phillip Howard (at the Adult Literacy Center at Dorchester, MA) and his students. Howard asks his students to write poems about math as a way of communicating their accomplishments and frustrations. Here is the poem that Howard offers his students; their responses are collected here.
Me & Math by Phillip Howard
I have a problem … a math problem
Math is always throwing problems at me
I solve 1 and Boom Math throws a harder 1
A Brain Buster … so I rage
But I can’t GIVE UP MATH
Math is in my blood … PROBLEMS CALL 2 ME
I want 2 BREAK THE HABIT … but I can’t
So I push MATH
I push on the WEB
I push on the STREETS
I push in the CLASS
I push MATH 2 YOU
So YOU 2 have a MATH PROBLEM
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