Fractals -- poems and photos

     Marc Frantz and Annalisa Crannell have written about mathematics and art (Viewpoints:  Mathematical Perspectives and Fractal Geometry in Art: Princeton University Press, 2011) and now Frantz (who is both a mathematician and an artist, a painter) has collaborated with a poet -- Robin Walthery Allen --  to develop a collection entitled Dance of Eye and Mind (not yet published).  I am honored to present a poem-photo pair from this exquisite collection.

     What is in us that must reach the top,
     that longs to look down upon the world as if a god?
     Don’t we know that in this infinite space
     the same rocks at the seashore know the secret of each peak?

     Underneath the surface are caverns, caves
     soaring cathedrals the earth has made.
     What arias does she sing to dripping water, bats
     and other seekers of wisdom?
     What prayers echo
     while the ceilings reach slowly to the floor?

    The open window houses everything:
     a cat lounging in the sunlight, the call of neighbors,
     the breath of possibility.                           (poetry by Robin Walthery Allen)

Visionary Mountains, invariant measure, fractal photograph by Marc Frantz