Monday, August 7, 2023

Life described by counting -- "My Math"

      One of my art-and-poetry friends, Kyi May Kaung alerted me to the online journal, Glass -- and I had lots of fun browsing in the archives . . . . and found (in Volume 1, Issue 2) a mathy poem-- which I offer below.

      My Math     by Allan Peterson

          Two egrets and three gulls are five,
          ten with shadows, doubles of the night in daylight,
          plus two for the red hawks watching.
          This is my math, just as I was multiplied by the bear
          and her cubs crossing at Chama,
          by the swarm of winged ants and the warblers
          that came frenzied for them.
          If I wait for the fall migration, if I am my integer
          while being stalked by bacteria,
          I might calculate an uneasiness of earth, including
          the skink that hides in the dryer vent,
          a continent about to shift in its chair, but I am impatient,
          still counting deliberately on my fingers and stars.

Another poem by Peterson with lots of numbers may be found here at poetryfoundations.org.

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