Counting and Rhyming

     Several days ago my email contained a surprise message -- containing a mathy poem --  from Ramandeep Johal, a theoretical physicist at IISER Mohali (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) in northern India.  I offer Johal's poem below -- a poem from his 2016 collection, The Sea of Tranquility 

     From One to Ten     by Ramandeep Johal

          Some things you find in pairs
          some exist just alone.
          While a trinity needs
          some degree of unity,
          a group of four
          requires bit more.

          So dealing with figures
          you hope to go further.
          A fiver comes with a palm
          --or shining like a star.

          Let us first fix
          the bunch of six,
          lest seven -- out of malice
          may try to get even.

          While eight carries some weight,
          nine seems closer to ten.
          That way it gets a boost
          from the one that rules the roost. 

    Thank you, Ramandeep Johal, for this clever and thought-provoking poem.  And here is a link to a list of several of my previous blog postings that offer connections to poetry from India.