Excerpt from Parliament Hill Fields by Syliva Plath.
From the linked ponds that my eyes wince
And brim; the city melts like sugar.
A crocodile of small girls
Knotting and stopping, ill-assorted in blue uniforms,
Opens to swallow me. I’m a stone, a stick.
One child drops a barrette of pink plastic;
None of them seem to notice.
Their shrill, gravelly gossip’s funneled off.
Now silence after silence offers itself.
The wind stops my breath like a bandage.
Look up the whole poem and read it. Because it deserves to be read in a fluid manner. These are just my two favorite stanzas, so I had to post them. I feel so cheesy when I read poems that I love. I probably look a lot like Anne Shirley in the opening scene of the BBC film. Especially lately. I’ve noticed that my love for literature and writing has intensified during the past few months. I positive why this is, but reading poems has almost become a craving lately.
It probably started when I got an e-mail last week from the Registrar’s office, telling me that I needed to fulfill my math proficiency requirement this spring. I felt like breaking my computer as I read the message. Most Linfield students arrived on campus prepared to take college-level calculus. I arrived with the ability to count on my fingers and use skip counting songs as tools to attack multiplication problems. I still remember sitting in my advisor’s office after taking Linfield’s math placement test. He pulled out my folder and set it between us on his desk.
“We both know you scored low on this test. You probably knew it while you were taking the test and I knew it because I looked at your SAT scores. “
He went on to tell me that I was lucky that my verbal and writing scores had been high, because I “certainly wouldn’t have been considered for my math scores.”
Thankfully, this didn’t depress me. I have been a math-reject since the beginning of my existence. My father, who is an engineer, probably feels sad when he sees me doing things like measuring objects by using my index finger.
After I received the Registrar’s notice, my creative writing advisor (not my mass communication advisor who had seen my test scores) e-mailed me with a similar message. He even recommended a class for me. It’s called, “Great Ideas in Math.” Here is the course description, because it made me smile: (Yes, there must be others like me in this world. )
Description: The beauty and significance of mathematics in the history of human thought. Focus on concepts of fairness, distribution of power, infinity, and chaos. The impact of mathematics on human knowing, its strengths and limitations. Prerequisites: high school algebra I and geometry, or equivalent. Satisfies mathematics proficiency requirement. Preference for registration will be given to students who have not fulfilled the mathematics proficiency requirement. NOTE: Not for General Science majors. 3 credits (QR) Location: MELR 202
Until the class starts, I’ll be brushing up on my skip counting skills:



