I’m trying to write a poem about zero
but I’m coming up with nothing.
Zip, zilch, nada, nought.
It’s as though every thought
has drained away
and everything I want to say
has gone.
I am an open mouth
an empty hole like
someone stole
my words away.
I count the things I cannot say
I get to 9 and see how they
just stop
again
and will not start
without that part
I’m missing still.
I wonder will
That number oh
Float from below
And add itself
Onto my shelf
Where all the digits sit.

—
Why not start a lesson with this maths poem? The number zero is fairly new and the history is fascinating. People used to leave blank spaces or markers to show something had to go in the number columns but the actual number 0 took hundreds of years to become commonplace, beginning around the year 458.

If you enjoyed this and would like to support my work then please…

Illustration courtesy and copyright, Carl Pugh.