In April, Celebrate BOTH Mathematics and Poetry

           In the United States, April is both National Poetry Month and Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month.  Visits to the links in the preceding sentence will offer lots of information about these monthly celebrations (as will exploring this blog).  AND, below I offer a poetic celebration of mathematics.

     American poet Harry Mathews (1950-2017) was a member of OULIPO and divided his time between New York and Paris; much of his work moved outside the restrictions of traditional poetic forms.

     Here are the opening lines of his poem,  "Safety in Numbers":

from    Safety in Numbers     by Harry Mathews

     The enthusiasm with which I repeatedly declare you my one
     And only confirms the fact that we are indeed two,
     Not one; nor can anything we do ever let us feel three
     (And this is no lisp-like alteration: it's four
     That's a crowd, not a trinity), and our five
     Fingers and toes multiplied leave us at six-

     es and sevens where oneness is concerned, although seven
     Might help if one was cabalistically inclined, and 'one'
     Sometimes is.  But this one hardly means one, it means five
     Millions and supplies not even an illusion of relevance to us two
     And our problems.  Our parents, who obviously number four,
     Made us, who are two; but who can subtract us from                                    some mythical three
     To leave us as a unity? . . . .           

, , , skipping to the final lines (out of a total of 39) we have:

     Look, you are the one!  All I want is for the two
     Of us to be as happy as the three little pigs, through the four
     Seasons, the five ages, the six senses, and of the heavenly spheres                all seven.

Here is a link to a list of earlier postings in this blog that feature Mathews and his work.