Mathematical language can heighten the imagery of a poem; mathematical structure can deepen its effect. Feast here on an international menu of poems made rich by mathematical ingredients . . . . . . . gathered by JoAnne Growney.
Minnestoa math teacher Ben Orlin's website Math with Bad Drawings is a fun place to visit and Orlin often posts on Twitter -- browsing there recently I found this posting:
On Twitter, I have seen frequent posts by UK-based writer Anthony Etherin -- and, encouraged by mathy poet Marian Christie, I have found it interesting to explore his work. Etherin focuses on constrained, formal, visual, and experimental poetry -- he tweets @Anthony_Etherin; he manages Penteract Press. AND Etherin has invented a new type of writing-constraint called the aelindrome -- a bit like the palindrome ( such as top spot or never odd or even ) except that the reversals involve more than one letter. Here is a simple example of an aelindrome:
melody, a bloody elm which can be divided into m el ody ablo ody el m
Moonless Moonlight by Anthony Etherin
Low, fatal nights! Late, moonless.... Tense, we glitch.
We swim bled sky, along the ashy glow.
Shy glow along the ambled sky, we switch.
We glisten -- see slate moonlight's natal flow.
Go here to learn more of Anthony Etherin and his work.
On the opening pages of a Springer Reference, Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences, we find a list of 107 fascinating titles -- including two that link mathematics and poetry:
"Mathematics and Poetry -- Arts of the Heart" by Gizem Karaali and Lawrence M. Lesser
"Poems Structured by Mathematics" by Daniel May
Even for those of us who lack access to the Springer volume, the abstracts found at the links above offer lots of valuable references -- and contact information for the authors.
AND, if you are on Twitter, you can enjoy palindromes and other constrained verse by Anthony Etherin ( @Anthony_Etherin ) -- an author whose latest book has the title SLATE PETALS.
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