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Home » Categories » Writing » Poetry » Zero is Greater Than Nothing » Printer Friendly

Jeff Brown

Perfection Dereliction

Zero is Greater Than Nothing

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Submitted Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown

Inner Projection
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Zero is an arithmetic hero,
Superman, Captain Fantastic,
Mr. Numerical rolled into one.
Zorro only a phoneme away and
look how the people loved him!
 
Billion, trillion, zillion are muscular
abstractions, movie stars in LA.
Nothing brings you back to earth,
to humble mirth like zero.  But zero
is much greater than nothing.  Before it
 
1 through 9 existed for hundreds of years.
Did they get as far? Are they so complete?
9 and 6 drew close to its symmetry,
but grew tired, turned in at the belly
and gave themselves tails, that like a
tadpole or monkey.  Is that so evolved?
And 8's not so great, it tried twice to relate to
zero's symmetrical singularity and failed.
 
Numbers were useless without zero, only
employed to keep track of chickens and debts.
And what rhymes for 1 through 9 like hero?

He who keeps 600 from being 594 less.

My paycheck re-soundly thanks you, zero!

Zero, everything but stupid, planned
its appearance with cunning and calm.
Avoided Europe for hundreds of years.
The marketing strategy paying off big.
Overnight arithmetic went from counting beans
to the Queen of Math.  Zero staked its claim,
 
became gatekeeper to positive and negative,
took on biblical proportions as the
origin of coordinate systems,
genesis to gardens of graphs,
completed algebra, enabled calculus to breathe.
 Without it engineering, technological feats
forever-trapped inside dreams.
No Empire State, computer, relativity,
quantum leap. No Apollo, SS Enterprise,
pocket protector geeks.
 
So, next time someone calls you a zero.
Take a moment to think of all that it means

Jeff is CEO of  InnerProjection.com: working with students and parents using the proprietary Success Design and Preparation system creating a plan to avoid being of the 70% of college grads who waste 10 to 15 years leaving 100s of thousands of dollars on the table.

Previous to owning Inner Projection, Jeff worked as a computer programmer and in tech. support, but hated it enough to move from his home in Connecticut to do stand up comedy in Boston where he worked with such comics as Bill Burr, Dan Cook, and Billy Martin and wrote for people like Mz. Michagan who needed material for her ventriloquism act. He then moved to Los Angeles to do more stand up, but found being a college professor more fulfilling. He's married with 3 children.

Looking for a fast paced, fun, inspirational read?: Black Body Radiation and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe (Amazon.com).

 






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Comments on this article:


» left by Ken McCreless (1,629)
Ken McCreless
(170 days 20 hours ago.)

Reader Rating: 4 out of 5
NIce job!
 
If I could rhyme, it would be sublime. But my words are so thorny, not to mention--corny...Ok, I'll stop, as I've already hurt myself.

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(170 days 9 hours ago.)

Ken,

Thanks for the laugh and thanks for stopping by.

Respond to this comment

» left by Michael Ramzy (517)
Michael Ramzy
(170 days 15 hours ago.)

Reader Rating: 2.5 out of 5
'Cunning and calm' is exactly what this article is. Very well done!

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(170 days 9 hours ago.)

Mike,

Thanks for saying so.

Respond to this comment

» left by Dianne Lehmann (4,729)
Dianne Lehmann
(170 days 10 hours ago.)

Reader Rating: 5 out of 5
Hi Jeff.
 
This is great! Loved it!
 
Dianne

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(170 days 9 hours ago.)

Dianne,

Thanks. Just thought I'd put some of the old poetry in to express my column theme.
Thanks for reading.

Respond to this comment

» left by Kristin (168 days 14 hours ago.)
I loved it too. Kristin

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(168 days 2 hours ago.)

Thanks, Kristin.
Respond to this comment

» left by Camille Strate (1,331)
Camille Strate
(168 days 12 hours ago.)

Reader Rating: 5 out of 5
You are such a hoot! Thanks for your commentary...& the very useful suggestion! I'll remember next time...oh, wait. I don't guess I've ever been called a zero. Maybe something to aspire to? LOL...thanks, Jeff.

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(168 days 2 hours ago.)

This one's for all those losers out there (haven't we all been there at some time?) who need a little perspective.
Respond to this comment

» left by Mogama (14,610)
Mogama
(168 days 2 hours ago.)

Reader Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Wow Jeff, you've got me wanting to earn the rank of ZERO. Thanks for a brilliant use of diction. It reads like a brand new literary invention. No kidding, it is. ~mogama~

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(168 days 2 hours ago.)

Thanks, Mogama. Appreciate the comment and you taking the time to read. Thanks again. 
Respond to this comment

» left by Connor Davidson (3,165) (113 days 7 hours ago.)
Reader Rating: 5 out of 5
Thinking of the number 0. Here is a question for you. What is 1 divided by zero.
 
Anyway, good poem. What a strange topic for a poem.

Respond to this comment
» left by Jeff Brown (9,168)
Jeff Brown
(22 days 9 hours ago.)

Hey, no math questions professor. The topic came upon reading a book on the history of math. Since I read just about everything (science, math, history, politics, business) it's great fodder for the muse. Thanks for reading. 
Respond to this comment

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Article added to SearchWarp.com on 1/14/2009 12:25:13 PM.
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