Perfectly Matched -- Poetry and Mathematics

     Mathematician Sarah Glaz has recently published a lovely and varied collection of math-linked poetry -- choosing her title, "Ode to Numbers," to echo Pablo Neruda. That Neruda poem is one that Glaz and I have long-loved -- it is included in our anthology, Strange Attractors:  Poems of Love and Mathematics (AK Peters/CRC Press, 2008).
     In recent days I have much enjoyed reading -- and rereading -- the variety of poems included in Glaz's new collection Ode to Numbers (Antrim House, 2017).  The publisher's author-page includes several sample poems and one of them, "A Woman in Love," offers this appropriate self-description:

               I see a streak of mathematics
               in almost everything.

Glaz's poetry takes a reader to childhood days in Romania, to mathematics conferences, to a variety of topics in the history of mathematics, and to the inner workings of a beautifully creative mathematical mind.  One of my personal favorites among poetic forms is the pantoum -- I love the way that permuted repetition of phrases offers surprising new meanings -- and Glaz's collection offers several of these.  Earlier in this blog (at this link) I posted "A Pantoum for the Power of Theorems" and below, with permission, I offer "Mathematical Modeling."

     Mathematical Modeling     by Sarah Glaz

     Mathematical modeling may be viewed
     As an organizing principle
     That enables us to handle
     A vast array of information 

     As an organizing principle
     We could use the color spectrum
     A vast array of information
     Would become a rainbow in the sky

     We could use the color spectrum
     And the scaling notes spanning an octave
     Would become a rainbow in the sky
     Shining through the melody of rain

     And the scaling notes spanning an octave
     And letters gleaned from ancient alphabets
     Shining through the melody of rain
     Nature translated into words

     And letters gleaned from ancient alphabets
     That enable us to handle
     Nature translated into words
     May be viewed as mathematical modeling

"Mathematical Modeling" first appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of London Grip.
Thank you, Sarah, for these wonderful permutations of phrases and ideas.