Creating New Poems by Sampling Old Ones

      In its collection of Math Voices the American Mathematical Society (AMS) has a very interesting Feature Column -- a column written for students, teachers, and the general public -- that offers essays about math that it describes as "useful, fun, inspiring, or startling."  When browsing the column recently I found and enjoyed a column by Sara Stoudt of Bucknell University entitled "Sampled Poems Contain Multitudes" -- an article that gives readers an opportunity to experience Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself" (a book-length poem with a total of 52 poem-sections, found here at the Poetry Foundation website) via a poem with a sample line for each section,  Here are the opening lines:

From Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself":

World's Most Interesting Mathematician

     Angela Tabiri, a young mathematician from Ghana, in July captured global attention by winning the title,  World’s Most Interesting Mathematician. Here is her story!  This accolade was bestowed upon her by The Big Internet Math-Off, a competition held in the US last July.  Here is a link to the finals in the competition in which Angela's winning entry is included.

Go here for Angela Tabiri's math story.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics

      Daniel May -- professor at Black Hills State University in South Dakota -- enjoys not only teaching mathematics to future teachers but also exploration of the combinatorics of card games and the poetry of mathematical patterns and ideas.   He spends his summers working with Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM), a mathematics enrichment program for under-served public middle school students in New York City and Los Angeles.

     Below I offer a poem by May that was part of the program at the recent BRIDGES Conference.  (May's poem also is found with lots of BRIDGES poetry and poet-information here at the website of Sarah Glaz.)

          Eight Minutes     by Daniel May

          Eyelids closed,
          warm
          sunlight shining

          bright

          onto my thin skin.
          Earth below me, lush and vibrant from
          our star's
          nearly infinite rays.

Prison Math and Poetry Projects

     One of the good things that is happening is that poets and math people -- and others -- are investing time and funds in projects to help incarcerated individuals find crime-free activities for their present and future lives.  Here is a link to information about a Prison Math Project and this link leads to information about Prison Poetry Workshops.  A wonderful variety of activities have been taking place!

     Below I offer the opening lines of a poem that counts prisoners and tells of the racial and other injustices that they suffer-- a poem by prisoner, Korean war veteran, and poet Ethridge Knight (1931-1991).  (Knight's complete poem may be found here  -- along with many more -- at the Poetry Foundation website.)

A Fable      by Etheridge Knight

Once upon a today and yesterday and nevermore there were 7 men and women all locked / up in prison cells. Now these 7 men and women were innocent of any crimes; they were in prison because their skins were black. Day after day, the prisoners paced their cells, pining for their freedom. And the non-black jailers would laugh at the prisoners and beat them with sticks and throw their food on the floor. Finally, prisoner #1 said, “I will educate myself and emulate the non-colored people. That is the way to freedom—c’mon, you guys, and follow me.” “Hell, no,” said prisoner #2. “The only way to get free is . . . 

Knight's complete poem is available here.

Previous blog postings telling of math-poetry opportunities for incarcerated persons may be found here at this link.

BRIDGES Poetry -- and Clerihews

    One of my favorite mathy publications is the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, an online peer-reviewed journal published twice yearly by the Claremont Colleges Library and edited by Mark Huber, Claremont McKenna College, and Gizem Karaali, Pomona College.  The most recent issue -- (Vol. 14, issue 2), available online here.  The screen-shot below shows the poetry-contents of this issue.