#EquationPoem 21

For National Poetry Month 2021, I’m posting an equation poem each day. Maybe with an image, maybe without. I needed something very accessible and doable this year! Maybe you feel the same way? I’d love for you to join me, and here are several options for sharing your own or your students’ equation poems:

  • in the comments below
  • on social media with #EquationPoem–and be sure to tag me, please! (@LauraPSalas on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook)
  • on the Padlet on my bookpage here

Here’s today’s equation poem, based on yesterday’s news! My husband and I walked down the street to the state capitol, where there was a contingent of National Guards to maintain order if need be, hoping to find a rally or celebration of the verdicts happening. Nope (that’s mostly happening across town, either at the trial site or at George Floyd Square), just a rally for legalizing marijuana. Sigh.  While an equation poem isn’t long enough to include many details, any poem is a lovely container for emotions that are overwhelming you, even if you can only state them in their simplest, most basic terms.

And if you love equation poems, check out my Snowman-Cold=Puddle: Spring Equations, published by Charlesbridge and with gorgeous art by Micha Archer.

Snowman - Cold = Puddle: Spring Equations

 

Happy poeming!

P.S. Click here if you want to see all of this month’s equation poems!

P.P.S. If you like these, you might also love This Plus That, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace, and Mathematickles, by Betsy Franco and Steve Salerno.

7 Responses

  1. “any poem is a lovely container for emotions that are overwhelming you, even if you can only state them in their simplest, most basic terms”

    What a lovely description of the work poems can do.

  2. Laura, you perfectly captured exactly what so many of us were feeling. Excellent! Thank you. Here’s a quick one. Mrs. Cardinal came to our feeder today.

    snow + Mrs. Cardinal + flatter breast = chicks?

    1. Ooh, I didn’t know that nature fact. Love that your answer has a ? So often, our wondering is so rewarding, even before we know an answer!

  3. Cruelty + indifference = indecency X a million

    I saw someone on a show saying they need to take the lead out of bullets and use rubber or wood to stun and then deal with someone who is resisting or out of control or whatever. Lead leads to death and why? If we believe in redemption and rehabilitation and order and fairness/justice/decency we need to re-think how it is achieved and we need to find those who are not designed for being fair, impartial and concerned for their fellow man and remove them from that role, no matter the state of any person thought to have done wrong. We need to allow for a second chance. We need to help solve poverty to lead to better first chances, too. That all said I know there are extenuating circumstances on all sides. And of course arguments are made about what to do and why we are in such trouble. But the tears of loved ones and the loss of too many lives and their potential is tragic in any age and maybe more so today. I want it to end.

    1. Janet, excellent equation poem. You are so right. I agree, it has to end.

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