Yesterday (3-14) was Pi-day, but my recent thoughts have been focused on my math-teacher son Eric (who has acute pancreatitis) and his family -- and I forgot to post this poem on the proper day. Thanks to Lana Hechtman Ayers for these opening lines of "Circumference: A love poem."
Circumference: a love poem by Lana Hechtman Ayers
x = 2 π r
is what circulates
but does not equal
what’s in my heart—
your smile that goes on
forever, irrational.
A relationship traverses
linear space,
finite
like everything
except the irrational—
π and your smile
upon seeing me come near.
And we can speak of area,
the space inside,
y = π r²
as finite even though,
like love, it contains
the infinite, the irrational.
. . .
The full text of "Circumference: a love poem" is found in Ayers' collection, Chicken Farmer I Still Love You (D-N Publishing, 2007).
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Remembering Pi-day, a day late
Labels:
area,
circumference,
finite,
infinite,
irrational,
mathematics,
pi,
poetry
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