Today's news offers the exciting announcement that Tracy K. Smith is the new Poet Laureate of the United States. I have not found much of mathematics in her work BUT there are these (offered below) provocative lines of Section 6 from the title poem of Life on Mars: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2011). This Pulitzer Prize-winning collection is an elegy for Smith's father, a scientist who worked on the Hubble telescope.
from Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
6.
Who understands the world, and when
Will he make it make sense? Or she?
Maybe there is a pair of them, and they sit
Watching the cream disperse into their coffee
Like the A-bomb. This equals that, one says,
Arranging a swarm of coordinates
Showing posts with label Poet Laureate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poet Laureate. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Friday, July 3, 2015
A Voice Meant to be Spoken
Last month the Library of Congress named a new poet laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, a Californian and Mexican-American whose work often involves oral performance - as in “187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border,” (City Lights, 2007). As I have learned about this poet I have found that I identify with his process, "I write while I’m walking, on little scraps of paper,” he said. (Wasn't walking also a writing strategy for William Wordsworth?)
When I am introduced to the work of a new poet it has become my custom not only to enjoy her or his work but also to look for the ways that she or he uses mathematics. The following poem is found, along with others by Herrera, at Poets.org.
When I am introduced to the work of a new poet it has become my custom not only to enjoy her or his work but also to look for the ways that she or he uses mathematics. The following poem is found, along with others by Herrera, at Poets.org.
Labels:
directions,
five,
Juan Felipe Herrera,
mathematics,
poem,
Poet Laureate,
six,
walking,
William Wordsworth
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Excitement of Proving a Theorem
Wow! From first sighting, I have loved this description:
I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
These lines from "Geometry" by Rita Dove express -- as well as any string of twenty-four words I can think of -- the excitement experienced from proving a theorem.
I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
These lines from "Geometry" by Rita Dove express -- as well as any string of twenty-four words I can think of -- the excitement experienced from proving a theorem.
Labels:
Black History Month,
geometry,
mathematics,
Poet Laureate,
poetry,
proof,
Rita Dove,
theorem
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The best of the many
Here I link to an article by David Alpaugh, "The New Math of Poetry," -- not brand-new, for it bears a date of February, 2010 , but I found it only recently and have been thinking about its description of the seemingly unrestrained quantity of poetry expected to be published on the Internet. What happens to poetry if each of us calls what she writes "poems" and publishes them online, making them as available as the lines penned by a Poet Laureate?
Most of what I feel about proliferation of poetry is excitement. I love the democracy that lets all of us participate in poetry just as we all may run races, perhaps even taking a trophy in our neighborhood's turkey-day mile; we do not pretend excellence but, simply, it is fun and good for us. All of us who choose it can enjoy writing poems -- and experimentation with new forms -- and, from time to time, some surprising and splendid work will emerge.
Most of what I feel about proliferation of poetry is excitement. I love the democracy that lets all of us participate in poetry just as we all may run races, perhaps even taking a trophy in our neighborhood's turkey-day mile; we do not pretend excellence but, simply, it is fun and good for us. All of us who choose it can enjoy writing poems -- and experimentation with new forms -- and, from time to time, some surprising and splendid work will emerge.
Labels:
math,
Mississippi,
Natasha Trethewey,
number,
Poet Laureate,
poetry,
precision,
space,
theories,
time
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The hypotenuse of an isosceles triangle
Detroit poet, Philip Levine, has been selected as the new Poet Laureate of the United States. Selected by the librarian of Congress (James Billington), Levine follows poet W. S. Merwin in the honored position. A Poet Laureate is responsible merely for giving readings in October and May but some laureates also use the position to proselytize for poetry. Here, from Levine's early collection, What Work Is (Knopf, 1992), is a poem that looks back on a math-art moment in a middle-school classroom.
Labels:
After Leviticus,
hypotenuse,
isosceles,
Philip Levine,
Poet Laureate,
triangle,
What Work Is
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