Most of Dr. Williams' career was spent as a research mathematician at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo. His interest in other black mathematicians led him to create the important website Mathematicians of the African Diaspora.” One of my favorites of his poems ("The Nine-Sided Diamond,") is dedicated to his mother -- who also was a mathematician.
Dr. Williams' poem, "An 1883 Faery Tale" (about the construction of the Cantor set) recently appeared in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (January 2019 issue) and he has given me permission also to include it here:
An 1883 Faery Tale by Scott W. Williams
Once there was a king whose daughter was beautiful.
He loved her very deeply and he wished to have more.
So he cut her into pieces, and each was an astonishing daughter.
Still he wished more and he cut those pieces into pieces,
and again each was a stunning girl.
He loved these so, that he cut the pieces of the pieces into pieces
and he loved each of the pieces of the pieces
of the pieces so he induced.
When he was all done, with love he threw all the scattered remains
into the air so very high that when they fell to earth,
rainbowed flowers bloomed and Cantored at his feet.
*Formation of the Cantor set (Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor, 1845-1918):
Consider a line segment of a fixed length. Remove its middle third. Now remove the middle thirds from the remaining two segments. Now remove the middle thirds from the remaining four segments. Now remove…well you get the idea. If you could continue this construction through infinitely many steps, what's left is called the Cantor Set.
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