Friday, December 12, 2008

POETRY FRIDAY: Applied Geometry





Here’s a poem I found yesterday at American Life in Poetry. It was written by Russell Libby who lives in Maine. The poem, Applied Geometry, seems most appropriate for posting at this time of year.

From Applied Geometry
By Russell Libby


Applied geometry,

measuring the height

of a pine from

like triangles,

Rosa's shadow stretches

seven paces in

low-slanting light of

late Christmas afternoon.

One hundred thirty nine steps

up the hill until the sun is

finally caught at the top of the tree,

let's see, twenty to one…



You can read the rest of the poem here.



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At Wild Rose Reader, I have three Christmas acrostic poems today.

I also have three clerihews that I wrote for Tricia’s Poetry Stretch this week.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is over at Wild Rose Reader today.


4 comments:

laurasalas said...

Delicious poem. Why don't I feel like this when I help my teens with their geometry and algebra?

Elaine Magliaro said...

Laura,

Maybe you should work on geometry and algebra with your kids outdoors. I found that math was the hardest subject to help my daughter with once she reached a certain age.

tanita✿davis said...

Ah, this is lovely, and doesn't seem like math at all -- more like hugging a tree that you love so well that you know the exact distance to and of it...

Sara said...

Oh, I do love this. The whole poem makes me feel like I'm in the shadow of that astounding tree.

I had to help my son with a 3-D calculus project this week. He could do the math---it was the "oh, I guess I need something to make this out of...and super glue...and a ruler...and the right pen..and it's all due tomorrow" part of it that I had to help him with.