We were delighted to welcome world poetry slam champion, Harry Baker, to give a guest lecture to the Maths Society before half term.

After graduating from Bristol University as a mathematics graduate, Harry Baker combines his passion for numbers and words to write and perform poetry.

Following his exceptional achievement as world poetry slam champion in 2012, Harry Baker has travelled around the world to present workshops in many schools whilst also encouraging students to write and share their own poetry. Harry Baker then started performing as a speaker for TED, with one of his poems, ‘A love poem for lonely prime numbers’ reaching over 2 million views.

With Harry’s simplified and structured method of writing poetry, we were able to successfully construct our poems with our own desired poetic language and structures and finally heard some great performances from other students who were willing to share their work. We all thoroughly enjoyed the workshop delivered by Harry Baker and walked away from it having learnt a new skill.

“I was very interested in how Harry Baker was able to mix maths and poetry so seamlessly and with such wit, especially when they feel like such different subjects in school. Everyone was engaged by his storytelling and his passion for poetry, maths and German, with him even teaching us some German and letting us interact in one of his poems. However, he wasn’t afraid to let us know that our pronunciation was a little inaccurate. He definitely encouraged us to be more open-minded and that school doesn’t have to be boring if we use our imaginations.”Ramya, Year 10

The following poem was written by Lower Sixth pupil Bethany during the workshop:

Insomnia by Bethany Sankey

It’s 2 in the morning and I’m not asleep
But others are so I can’t make a peep,
I’ve tried everything, even counting sheep
It’s not working.

It’s 2:15 sat by my window,
Looking out at the street and although
I have to be up for school tomorrow
I need to be here right now.

The rain so faint it’s just a mist
The scent of the trees that could be missed
If I keep thinking, but you get the gist,
It’s just a normal night.

I go back to bed, energy all spent,
I could describe “outside” to my heart’s content
But unfortunately, I must relent
Because it’s 2:30 now, and I’m asleep.