This is a time of sadness in the math-poetry community as we mourn the loss of poet and retired mathematics teacher, Amy Uyematsu (1947-1923). Here is a link to an obituary that celebrates her life and scrolling down at this link leads to information about Uymatsu's scheduled contribution to an upcoming BRIDGES Math-Arts Conference.
It was my delight to connect with Amy lots of years ago and I have featured her and her work often in this blog (This link leads to Blog-SEARCH results for Uyematsu.)
A frequently-discussed question in math circles is "Is mathematics discovered or invented?" -- and below I offer the opening stanzas of Uymatsu's poem, "The Invention of Mathematics." The entire poem is available here in my blog posting for September 29, 2010.
The Invention of Mathematics by Amy Uyematsu
A man who is not somewhat of a poet
can never be a mathematician.
Karl Weierstrass, German mathematics teacher
/ one
one is the only true number
the I in the eye
each baby the god
in a mother's sigh
/ two
after the number two there was no stopping
troubles blossoming
in geometric progression
two to tango
and two required for murder and war
Doris Day singing
love me or leave me
and the tragic lob
of my nervous girlheart
th-thump, th-thump
she already knew
that deafening silence
when the call goes unanswered
th-thump, th-thump
downbeat on two
. . . Uymatsu's complete poem is available here.
Thank you, Amy, for your wonderful life!
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