A Pleasure or a Puzzle?

     A few weeks ago (during National Poetry Month) I came upon an opinion piece by Danny Heitman in the The Washington POST with this title:  "I read poetry for work.  You get to read it for pleasure."  And today I am thinking about duality of roles for mathematics activity as well as for poetry -- a pleasure or a puzzle??  I celebrate both.

Danny Heitman is the editor of Phi Kappa Phi’s Forum magazine and the author of “A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.”    Heitman explains:  As the editor of a magazine that includes a poetry column, I routinely read poems because I have to. But I also delve into poems for pleasure, something that makes me an outlier among America’s readers. According to a National Endowment for the Arts survey conducted in 2022, only 11.5 percent of American adults had read or listened to poetry in the previous year. When friends and I talk about what’s on our reading

And below, from the Spring, 2009 issue of Phi Kappa Phi Forum is a mathy poem by Robert Lima (1935-2022), for many years a Professor at Penn State University.

Resisting Disability with Poetry and Math

We different humans have different abilities . . . 

Zoeglossia is a literary organization seeking to pioneer a new, inclusive space for poets with disabilities.  Launched in 2017, Zoeglossia is the first such organization in the poetry landscape. The idea is to provide an intersectional community open to a wide range of disability poetics, encouraging conversation and support.  This link leads to a wide variety of poems that explore the experiences and consequences of illnesses and disabilities . .. and I offer a the opening portion of a sample from that collection below.

Number Twenty       by Jonathan Mack

This, the story that brings me to you, is one story in twenty. In the other nineteen I am dead. In five stories I’m dead of AIDS, having suffered every possible infection and died at home, in a variety of hospitals, and in the toilet of a theater. There are seven suicides between the ages of twelve and twenty-five. There are two terrible car accidents -- one involving a drunk driver and one that is entirely my fault. In one story I live only three days and  . . .

        Jonathan Mack's poem is from This New Breed. Copyright © 2002 by Jonathan Mack.

Put a Fibonacci poem in your pocket!

       Each year the month of April is celebrated as National Poetry Month  -- and upcoming April 29, 2026 is this year's Poem in Your Pocket Day.  

       I invite you to explore this blog to find a poem you'd love to carry in your pocket . . . .and, below, I provide another possible pocket-poem -- this one a poem whose line-syllables are counted by the Fibonacci numbers.  These lines below are the opening lines of a poem by Arizona State professor and writer Punya Mishra; the complete poem is offered at this link:

This link leads to previous blog postings that offer Fibonacci poems.

Waiting for good and kind . . .

Only a bit of math ... but an important concern ... needing a solution:

This link leads to more mathy poems in this blog 

by Langston Hughes (1901-1967).

2026 AMS Math-Poetry Contest Winners

        Today I have discovered the wonderful list of winning poems from this years Math-Poetry Contest sponsored by the American Mathematical Society.  This link to the AMS website offers links to thirteen winning poems , ,, , I encourage you to follow the link and enjoy . . . and encourage students you know to explore math-poetry connections.

       Below I offer the opening stanzas of a very fine poem by one of the AMS winners -- Jaycee Chen from the STEAM Academy at John F. Kennedy School.  Chen's poem received an Honorable Mention in the Middle School Division.

A Quiet Music of Numbers     by Jaycee Chen

April -- Celebrate BOTH Mathematics and Poetry

       April is National Poetry Month AND National Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month -- and here in this blog we continue to celebrate poetry-math connections.  Below I offer the opening stanzas of an old poem of mine entitled "Time".

          The clock goes round --
          making time a circle
          rather than a line.
          Each year's return to spring
          layers time on time.

A Poetic Triangle of Numbers

The shape and patterns of the following lines have me thinking of them as a visual poem:

 1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

Scientific American Shares Rhymes

      Lots of years ago, an important part of my awareness of poems that involve math came from reading work by Martin Gardner in his "Mathematical Games" in Scientific American . . . and it has been a delight to me to find poetry again in my issues of that magazine.   METER, a Scientific American feature edited by Dava Sobel, offers a bit of science-related poetry each month -- and the April 2026 issue features three mathy limericks by Jeffrey Branzburg (a retired math teacher and technology consultant).  I offer one of these limericks below.

       Topology     by Jeffrey Branzburg

Mathematics . . . is loaded with poetry

        Online I have learned about a recent lecture by Werner Herzog at Brooklyn Public Library's Pi-Day celebration:  Is Math Art? Werner Herzog Says Yes.  

Quoting from Herzog's presentation:

"Beyond all of this, I do believe mathematics is a new form of art. . . It is loaded with meaning.  It's not just an aesthetic or a form of abstract painting.  It's loaded with poetry."

Celebrate the "Year of Math"

     A Congressional Resolution declaring 2026 as a Year of Math in the U.S. was introduced in the Senate (on 12/18/2025) by its co-sponsors, Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R,WV) and John Hickenlooper (D, CO), and in the House (on 3/92/2026) by its co-sponsors, Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (D, PA-6) and Jay Obernolte (R, CA-23). We deeply appreciate that this is a bipartisan effort in both chambers.

Each of the Senate and the House resolved that it: 

(1) expresses support for the declaration of a “Year of Math” in the United States;

A Syllable-square for St. Patrick's Day

       March brings shamrocks --
       St. Patrick's Day, 
       luck of Irish, 
       let's dance and sway. 

These words about the day we celebrate on March 17 are from Catherine Pulsifer, A Holiday Awaits -- one of many examples of Words of Wisdom found here.  Details about the life of St. Patrick may be found here.

Happy Pi-Day

 

Top Math Blogs on FeedSpot

Recently I as delighted to learn -- from Anuj Agarwal, the founder of  FeedSpot -- that this blog Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics  has been selected as one of the Top 90 Math Blogs on the web (2026 Edition).  And I have mentioned two others of the top 90 in my blog postings (found here).

Here is a link to the FeedSpot listings.   

Another FeedSpot list to consider  -- 30 best Math Teacher Blogs.

Is 13 Unlucky?

        Today I am briefly reflecting on the fact that both last month and this month (2026 February and March) contain a Friday-the-13th.  And those thoughts have led me to a tiny, syllable-count triangle poem.

       Is
       it true
       that Friday
       the thirteenth's an
       unlucky happening?

       Counting syllables
       can celebrate
       ( in a way )
       that prime
       day!

Spelling with Roman Numerals

Sharing a few words (found on X Twitter) from a FB post by poet Brian Bilston:

Previous postings in this blog of poems by Brian Bilston may be found at this link.

Creative Writing -- Including Mathematics

A reminder of upcoming student mathy writing-contest deadlines: 

Create a video for a STEAM poem (A list of poems is provided.) -- deadline April 30, 2026, more info here.

A MoMath Contest with a variety of entry categories, including poems -- deadline, April 23, 2026.

 Contests for which entry deadlines have passed -- but which will offer new entry opportunities in the future -- include the AWM Essay Contest and the American Mathematical Society Poetry Contest.

And, starting to count by twos, I find:

                    Writing
                    is a process
                    to discover new thoughts.

Valentine Math Poem

This morning as I was looking online for Valentine greetings to send to my grandchildren, I found this mathy poem:

The image above was found here at the TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) website.   

Vector Poetry

     Radoslav Rochallyi  is a poet, essayist, and interdisciplinary artist living in Prague, Czech Republic -- and the author of eight books of poetry.   Recently I found his work featured here in Math Values, an online publication of the MAA (Mathematical Association of America)/

     In Rochallyi's article -- entitled "Vector Poetry" -- he shows us three different illustrations of poetry portrayed using vectors.   He takes a phrase that he would like to communicate poetically and offers three examples of how it could be portrayed using vector poetry.  The phrase is:

The Groundhog's Prediction

      Growing up in western Pennsylvania -- on a farm close to Indiana, PA -- I was not far from the town of Punxsutawney and enjoyed celebration each year on February 2 of "Groundhog Day."  On this day a legendary groundhog who has burrowed underground to spend the worst of winter -- near Punxsutawney, PA --  peeks out to test the weather.  If he sees no shadow, spring is on the way BUT if he sees his shadow, he quicky scurries back to his underground refuge, this departure predicting six more weeks of winter.  (Recent publicizing of this event has altered it -- now the groundhog does his shadow-seeing and prediction in front of a large audience.  And it is televised!)

     Today, in her weekly radio broadcast on wpsu, poet Marjorie Maddox offered the slightly mathy Groundhog Day poem "On Gobbler's Knob" by Pittsburgh poet Shirley Stevens (1940-2022).  I offer it below (followed by a link to background information about the poem and the poet).  Alas, today's groundhog has predicted six more winter weeks.

       On Gobbler’s Knob     by Shirley Stevens 

       We gather on the hill outside Punxsutawney
       to draw tight circles against the dark.

       Five thousand strong, we twist and shout
       to circulate blood to our frozen toes,

Beauty in Mathematics

      A few days ago I found poetic words (offered below) by G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) posted on X by @TheMathFlow  -- I enjoyed not only the poem but also an exploration of various MathFlow postings -- which offer lots of delightful bits of mathematics.   (Visit @TheMathFlow and enjoy!)