I jotted most of this poem down on the back of my sudoku puzzle this morning after reading a bit of Charles Seife’s book Zero, specifically the section on page twelve called “The Birth of Zero” where he compares early systems of writing numbers and the eventual introduction of zero as a placeholder for the Babylonians.

So the themes of writing, math and education got me started here along with what seemed to be a connection between the words “amuse” and “muse”, although I’ve since found that there is no connection save the obvious visual one. And audible one. Other than that, though, in the way that probably counts, there is no etymological connection.

Regardless, the start of this poem is a play on the word “muse” and “amuse”. This is not, perhaps, inspired poetry, but it does remind me that the caution I always have in my mind against such cleverness is something to always push back against.

Poetry can be and is so many different things and the inspiration to write poetry should not be to reach the vision of poetry that was held out for us when we were (or still are) young.

I wish that I had planned it, but reading the poem one last time before I post it, I see that the initial word play of muse and amuse sets up so very many word plays throughout the poem, more than I held in my head while writing here about it.

In that way, the apparently unserious play at first is simply a sign to the reader that more is to come and that perhaps, even within seemingly uninspired play with words, there is a possibility for serious exploration of a theme.