Blogging about Math and Poetry

      One of my recent online pleasures has been visiting the Poetry Blogging Network -- I was led there because it mentions my blog but I also found a rich array of other treasures to explore.  One of these is the book of kells -- a blog written by poet, editor, and teacher Kelli Russell Agodon.

     One of the very special poems I found (posted on February 3, 2024 ) is "Zero Sums" by Luisa A. Igloria  -- I offer below its opening lines:

     Zero Sums     by Luisa A. Igloria

          Driving back from the gym, I listen to
          a radio program where two mathematicians

          are talking about zero. I'm parked in front
          of my house, but their conversation keeps me

          glued to the seat. One of them says in math,
          whatever operation you do, you need to also be 

          able to undo—just like with multiplication and
          division. Unless you divide by zero, in which case

          you get the impossible. Or you get . . . .                   

Igloria's complete poem is found here.. 

.More about Virginia poet Luisa Igloria is available here.

This link leads to an earlier blog posting that features work by Igloria.

Explore a new idea by writing a poem . . .

      Often I try to unravel the intricacies of a new idea by writing -- using communication with my fingers as steps toward understanding.  And when I found the poem below (here at the website VIA NEGATIVA) I saw it also as a poem of discovery -- and I offer it to you:

Every Line Intersects the Line
                           at Infinity at Some Point                       by Luisa A. Igloria

"Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe."   - János Bolyai (1802-1860)

The optometrist asks you to look into 
the autorefractor: two dark lines form 

a road that stretches from where you sit
to a red barn at the horizon. If your brain 

tells you that you're looking at a point 
at infinity rather than just mere inches away, 

it helps the eyes focus. Things have to end 
somewhere, don't they? In projective geometry,