How to write, by John Steinbeck

 I really don't see how this advice can be bettered. It no doubt applicable to other fields too

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The motor-bus in Oxford, by Alfred Denis Godley

(This famous comic poem was written around 1941, and is here dedicated to all those who remember having to learn Latin at school!) 

What is this that roareth thus?
Can it be a Motor Bus?
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
Implet in the Corn and High
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caedar a Bo---
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live:---
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
Thus I sang; and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretches live like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!.

Squares, by Michael Carding

 

Forty five times forty five

Equals twenty twenty five; (20+25) X (20+25) = 2025

This year, so rare, a perfect square

Unique in years I’ve been alive.

The last was nineteen thirty six

Now wait until two one one six

Rejoice! It’s good to be alive

Square up to twenty twenty five.

Our Queen Elizabeth the Second

Reigned seventy years, or so it’s reckoned , Elizabeth 1952 – 2022

In all those years upon the throne

Not one was square, not one alone,

Yet Charles her long-awaited heir

Reigned just three years and got a square, Charles 2022 – 2025

Tiberius Caesar, greedily,

Was not content with one, but three. Tiberius 14 - 37

Pythagoras would doubtless muse

The square on the hypotenuse, 272 + 362 = 452 = 2025

But sum three squares (does that seem naughty?)

Try five and twenty, lastly forty. 52 + 202 + 402 = 2025

Square of five, fourth power of three,

We’ve met the product recently; 52 X 34 = 2025*

Or integers to nine from one

Add them up and square the sum. (9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1)2 = 452 = 2025

I’m still not done, please pay attention,

We’ll rise into the third dimension:

Cube one, cube two, then three then four,

Carry on and cube five more,

Add all these cubes from one to nine

The sum, a number for our time.13 + 23 + 33 + 43 + 53 + 63 +73 + 83 + 93 = 2025

With special properties to cheer

Embrace! Enjoy! Happy New Year!