Math-Poetry Blog -- An Invitation to Explore

      Yesterday I made a blog posting with the same title as this one -- and this morning I discovered that my posting was full of links that were not working as I had expected.  And so, I have deleted the post.  I do, indeed, invite you to explore the blog -- lots of labels in the lower right-hand column can help you find specific posts.  And another posting with come soon . . .

Collections of Mathy Poetry

    My friend and colleague, Marian Christie, has let me know that the math-poetry collection (with commentary) that she published in 2021 -- From Fibs to Fractals: Exploring Mathematical Forms in Poetry -- is now available for free download on her website. Here is the link for downloading.   AND, this link leads to samples of Christie's own mathy poems. published earlier in her blog.

      Today I have been browsing From Fibs to Fractals.  In an entertaining and informative chat in Christie's opening chapter about the Fibonacci numbers, I encountered this sample, a six-line syllable-count Fib poem by contemporary American poet B. A. France:

       Looking     by B. A. France

               moon
               light
               rising
               above the
               skeletal treetops
               she wonders what tomorrow brings   

Poet and Math Teacher Passes On

     Poet Jonathan Holden (1941-2024) -- who, early in his career, was a math teacher -- died just a few weeks ago.  Seeing his death notice has reminded me to revisit and again enjoy and appreciate his work.  My first mention of Holden's work in this blog was in this posting in January, 2011 -- and here is a link to the list of postings in which his poetry is featured.  

     Two of Holden's mathy poems are included in the anthology that was gathered by mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz and me -- Strange Attractors,  Poems of Love and Mathematics (A K Peters/ CRC Press, 2008).  One of these is "The Departure of an Alphabet,"  a poem that deals with age-related decline of memory and reasoning.  I offer its opening lines:

from   The Departure of an Alphabet     by Jonathan Holden  

A Tetrahedron leads to a Poem

     Minnesota teacher and writer Ben Orlin has done lots and lots to make mathematical ideas popular and accessible.   One of his prominent activities is his website Math with Bad Drawings.  In this posting from 2018, Poem on a Pyramid, Orlin uses the special pyramid called a tetrahedron to structure a poem.  Each of the edges of the tetrahedron is associated with a line of verse and each triangular face is thereby associated with a three-line stanza.  The poem below was constructed by associating a line with each of the six edges -- with a stanza for each of the four triangular faces.

A tetrahedron -- for designing a poem

Below, I offer Orlin's poem; for more details about its construction, visit and explore Orlin's wonderfully informative and stimulating website.

Seeking Student Math-Poems . . .

     A quick reminder that the American Mathematical Society Student Poetry Contest DEADLINE is coming soon -- on February 2, 2025.  Poems from three groups are solicited:  middle school, high school, and college students.

Here is a link to my December blog posting that gives details about the contest.

This link shows a poster with the winning poems from last year's contest.

Here are this year's contest rules from the AMS Website.

Lots and Lots of Math Blogs . . .

     Recently I was informed by Feedspot that this blog of mine, Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics,  was selected as one of the Top 90 Math Blogs on the web.  At Feedspot's request, I invite you to follow that link and explore their list.

Geometry in New York City

     As I grew up on a farm, mathematics -- with planting depth-and-distance measurements, with counting of animals and fenceposts, with angles of tree-branches, and many other basics -- was important background knowledge.  As I grew older and experienced more city-time, the mathematics I encountered was more complex.  When I visit Pittsburgh or San Francisco or New York City or . . . I feel the geometry that surrounds me.  And I was reminded of those geometric feelings when I recently encountered this poem:

Mayakovsky in New York:  A Found Poem     by Annie Dillard

     New York: You take a train that rips through versts.
     It feels as if the trains were running over your ears.

     For many hours the train flies along the banks
     of the Hudson about two feet from the water. At the stops,
     passengers run out, buy up bunches of celery,
     and run back in, chewing the stalks as they go.

     Bridges leap over the train with increasing frequency.

Enhanced Understanding of Math through Poetry

If you have TWO ways of saying something,
that enhances your understanding of it!

     For those of you going to the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle (JMM 2025), an important session available to attend is this one, scheduled for the morning of January 9 and sponsored by AWM, the Association for Women in Mathematics:

AWM Special Session on Exploring Mathematics through the Arts and Pedagogy in Creative Settings

And a very special presentation within this session that explores connections between Mathematics and Poetry is "Enhanced Understanding of Mathematics Through Poetry" -- presented by scientist, teacher, and writer Emily R. Lutken.  Lutken's presentation is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, January 9 -- here is a link to the abstract and scheduling details for that event.  Here is one of the mathy poems that will be part of Lutken's presentation: