Finding Time by JoAnne Growney
Points chase points
around the circle,
Anti-clockwise,
fighting time.
You know time's a circle,
rather than a line.
Make a line a circle!
Pick a center.
Wrap and wrap and wrap
the line around the rim.
How do the ends
get tucked in?
Cut a circle open,
stretch into a line.
Does the cut destroy
a point or fit
between a pair?
If the cut's midway
from now to Tuesday,
how do I get there?
Do I move on
by going back,
or may I
skip a space?
A square is neither line
nor circle; it is timeless.
Points don't chase around
a square. Firm, steady,
it sits there and knows
its place. A circle
won't be squared.
My attention was drawn to this years-ago poem when I browsed a recently-purchased copy of Mathematically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations (IOP Publishing, 1998) by Gaither and Gaither -- and found on Page 327 the final stanza of the poem above but without my name (see snapshot below). At first I was angry, thinking of the stanza as stolen; but perhaps a simple error was made -- a carelessness that makes me feel sad. And a good time to remind myself here, in this blog, to be careful with the work of others!
JoAnne's stanza ... |
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