28 June 2004. Today's entry is devoted to a lesson in the creation of a mathemaku. It features the mathemaku that Jahna, the little girl I mentioned a couple of entries ago, made last Thursday. The next evening, I got a copy of it, which wasn't written as a long division example. When I put it into the long division set-up, I realized that she'd left out one component, the term I call the "sub-dividend product":

Nor could I later when I thought about the poem. Eventually, though, I did what I've done with my own poems in many cases: tried putting terms in different places. I decided (without consulting Johna) that "serenity" was a larger quantity than "peace," so tried it as the dividend. No real improvement. Then, finally, I realized that it wasn't necessarily out of Nature, so I could make it the sub-dividend product, and create a new dividend. The latter could have Nature in it--in fact, should have Nature in it, so that "serenity" plus "Nature" could equal it. I thought of "pond" and a few other things out of Nature, but none gave me any kind of jolt.

My next breakthrough soon occurred. It may seem trivial (just about all the breakthroughs I have when working on a poem are incredibly trivial-seeming in retrospect) but I considered it major: I remembered that my terms need not be single words! I grabbed "pond" and worked it nostalgiac: "Willow-fringed pond/ in a childhood's slowest moments,/ 100 years ago." On second or third thought, I added "still" to make sure "serenity" was suggested. For an extra specific, and some alliteration, I put "ferns" into it, too. The usual fooling around took place. For instance, I first had "willow&fern-fringed" and tried "a small child slowed against" instead of the odder but, to me, more off-right "slowed against by a small child."

I like it the way it is, but hope to add color--with Jahna's help. Right now, though, I consider it a good simple example to use in my workshop, if anyone shows up for the next session.