Friday, August 13, 2021

JHM -- a rich source of mathy poems

      Every six months the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics offers a new online issue and includes a generous offering of mathy poems.  Here is a link to the current issue (Vol, 11, No, 2, July 2021) and I offer --after a sample, which features a type of algebra problem -- the titles, authors, and links to JHM mathy poems.

    Train Algebra      by Mary Soon Lee

     Do not use a calculator. Show your work.
     Haruki leaves Chicago Union Station at 10:42 pm
     on a train traveling at 60 miles per hour.

     At 10:33 pm, Haruki boards the train.
     He’s abandoned his job,
     his collection of cactuses;
     has only his cell phone, his wallet,
     and a dog-eared paperback.
     He walks through two carriages
     before finding an open seat,
     apologizes as he sits down
     beside a woman his mother’s age.
     The woman glares at him. 

     96 minutes later, Pedro leaves Chicago,
     headed in the same direction, on a train
     traveling at 84 miles per hour.

     Haruki tries to sleep.
     Can’t.
     His thoughts snag on Pedro.
     The train horn bleats, slow and lonely.
     Haruki picks up his book,
     retreats to the nineteenth century . . .

. . .                                 For the rest of "Train Algebra" follow this link.

Here is a link to previous mentions in this blog of poet Mary Soon Lee.

Here is a list, with links, to other poems in JHM's current issue:

"The Uncertainty of Confidence"    by Michael J. Leach

     "Train Algebra" by Mary Soon Lee

"Sonnet ANSI/VITA 49.2-2017, Sec. 9.13.3"      by Bruce McGuffin

     "Asymptotic Dream"     by Oscar Gonzalez

"A Life Cut Short by Cacey L. Wells

AND the issue offers Two Poetry Folders:

     "Mathematical Rigor from Within" -- including commentary and three poems by Lowell Abrams

     "Mathematical Poetry in the Time of Covid"  -- including poetry by Christopher Caruvana, Marion Deutsch Cohen, Lawrence "Larry" Lesser, Dan May, Vanessa Sun, and Michele Willman.

Next, two additional JHM articles also feature poems:

The article entitled "The Music Is All That Counts" by Sarah Glaz and Mark Sanders includes a poem by Glaz,  "Pythagoras Plays His Lyre,

and the article by Benjamin Elkins entitled "Felix Hausdorff’s Poem, Den Ungeflügelten” contains a translation -- "To the Wingless Ones" -- of a poem by Hausdorff.

Finally, so that you can be sure not to miss anything, here is an introduction to the issue -- telling what you will find -- from editors Gizem Karaali and Mark Huber.

No comments:

Post a Comment