Triangular Poems

      A recent return to one of my favorite poetry collections -- alas, now out of print -- Against Infinity: An Anthology of Contemporary Mathematical Poetry, Edited by Ernest Robson and Jet Wimp (Primary Press, 1979), reacquainted me with this poem by Catherine M. Lynch (1939-2021)  -- a poem with its title and its syllable counts bieng Triangular Numbers):

A
Tripod is
A perfect plane as well
As the base of a triple point pencil.

The
Tripleness
In truth, is a kind of
Glory and power just being itself

And
Not even
Sacredness symbolized.
There is something triangular in love.

 Follow this link to find more blog postings that involved triangular poems.

Mathematicians that aren't white men . . .

          Who
          can do
          mathematics?
          What about girls and women
          and people of color?
          We need to open
          our eyes and
          our doors! 

      Even though mathematicians are frequently exploring new ideas and patterns of thought, minds often have been closed against recognizing math skills in varied groups of people.  It has taken lots of effort to get math doors opened to women, to people of color.  Here are some informative and inspiring videos:

Journeys of Black Mathematicians (A documentary project by George Csicsery)

Meet a Mathematician:  Dr. Gizem Karaali

Meet a Mathematician:  Dr. Lisa Fauci 

Blogging about Math and Poetry

      One of my recent online pleasures has been visiting the Poetry Blogging Network -- I was led there because it mentions my blog but I also found a rich array of other treasures to explore.  One of these is the book of kells -- a blog written by poet, editor, and teacher Kelli Russell Agodon.

     One of the very special poems I found (posted on February 3, 2024 ) is "Zero Sums" by Luisa A. Igloria  -- I offer below its opening lines:

     Zero Sums     by Luisa A. Igloria

          Driving back from the gym, I listen to
          a radio program where two mathematicians

          are talking about zero. I'm parked in front
          of my house, but their conversation keeps me

          glued to the seat. One of them says in math,
          whatever operation you do, you need to also be 

          able to undo—just like with multiplication and
          division. Unless you divide by zero, in which case

          you get the impossible. Or you get . . . .                   

Igloria's complete poem is found here.. 

.More about Virginia poet Luisa Igloria is available here.

This link leads to an earlier blog posting that features work by Igloria.

Mathematics -- a Beautiful Mystery

     Guided by Facebook, I have found and explored a variety of Math Poems on YouTube.  Here is a sample stanza from a poem that I enjoyed today:

from "Beautiful Mystery" by Trixie Batista (here on YouTube)

A variety of YouTube videos of mathy poems are available at this link.

Invisible Poem

This cartoon, found a few days ago on Twitter (X), has reminded me of the role that both mathematics and poetry have in formulating the invisible.

Thank you, Grant Snider!

Learn more about Snider's collection, Poetry Comics, at this link.

Remembering Bob Grumman . . .

      Recently I discovered an online article -- "Bob Grumman’s mathematical universe: somewhere, minutely, a widening" by mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz) at Synapse International, an international visual poetry gathering, co-edited by Philip Davenport and karl kempton) that celebrates the work of math visual-poet Bob Grumman (1941-2015)..  When I visited the article by Glaz, I also found several other articles that celebrated Grumman -- found here at this link for Issue 7, January 2024.

     Below I post two of  Grumman's Mathemaku -- visual poems that involve mathematical symbols and the brevity of Haiku; one of them is found in the article by Glaz mentioned above and the second is found here (along with others) in an article by karl kempton.

Integrating . . .

      Integrating our fields of knowledge makes them more useful -- a view that has been correct for me, at least, and I am delighted when I find more people integrating poetry with mathematics.  This link leads to materials offered by the American Mathematical Society that connect with poetry.

     Several years ago an article of mine --  entitled "Everything Connects" -- was published in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts.  Below I offer a brief poem from the article (a Fib, with syllable counts equal to the first six Fibonacci numbers).  Here is a link to a 2020 blog posting about the article and here is a link to the article.  The following Fib is included in the article: