As she had done in numerous preceding years, mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz is once again an organizer for a poetry reading at the BRIDGES Math-Arts Conference -- this year to be held in Richmond, Virginia, August 1-5.
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| Bridges Poetry Reading Website |
Poetry Reading Sunday, August 4, 3:00 - 5:00 pm2500 West Broad Street Richmond, Virginia
Recently I discovered an online article -- "Bob Grumman’s mathematical universe: somewhere, minutely, a widening" by mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz) at Synapse International, an international visual poetry gathering, co-edited by Philip Davenport and karl kempton) that celebrates the work of math visual-poet Bob Grumman (1941-2015).. When I visited the article by Glaz, I also found several other articles that celebrated Grumman -- found here at this link for Issue 7, January 2024.
Below I post two of Grumman's Mathemaku -- visual poems that involve mathematical symbols and the brevity of Haiku; one of them is found in the article by Glaz mentioned above and the second is found here (along with others) in an article by karl kempton.
One of the wonderful supporters of connections between mathematics and the arts has been BRIDGES, a conference-gathering that was initiated by Reza Sarhanghi (1952-2016) in 1998.
Here, at the BRIDGES website, one may find information about the upcoming 2024 conference. This website also offers -- via the link Papers Archive -- access to conference papers from 1998 to 2023.
Poetry became part of the conference in 2011 and, at the link Mathematical Poetry, we are taken to a website maintained by math-poet Sarah Glaz -- a website that offers access to a vast and wonderful collection of poems, anthologies, recordings, videos, . . .
Below I include an anthology sample, a very fine poem by Deanna Nikaido from the Bridges Stockholm 2018 Anthology.
Ratio by Deanna Nikaido
They say there are two sides to everything.
One of the important math-poetry projects that I have been involved in is Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics, a poetry anthology collected and edited by mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz and me -- published by AK Peters/CRC Press in 2008 and now available on Kindle and at various online used-book sites.
A poem in Strange Attractors that I have been drawn to again recently is "Ode to Numbers" by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). Here are its opening lines:
from Ode to Numbers by Pablo Neruda
Oh, the thirst to know
how many!
The hunger
to know
how many
stars in the sky!
BRIDGES, an annual conference that celebrates connections between mathematics and the arts, will be held this year in Halifax Nova Scotia, July 27-31. (Conference information available at this link.) A poetry reading is one of the special event at BRIDGES and Sarah Glaz, retired math professor and poet, is one of the chief organizers of the event. Here at her University of Connecticut website, Glaz has posted information about the July 30 reading along with bios and sample poems from each of the poets. For poets not part of this early registration, an Open Mic will be available (if interested, contact Glaz -- contact information is available here at her website.)
Here is a CENTO I have composed using a line of poetry from each of the sample poems (found online at this link) by the 2023 BRIDGES poets:
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Tom Petsinis is a mathematics adviser at Deakin University and is author of nine poetry collections as well as theatrical works and books of fiction. He also is involved in the worldwide BRIDGES organization --which meets annually to investigate and celebrate connections between mathematics and the arts. This year's BRIDGES conference will be held July 27-31 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and next year's conference is planned for August 1-5, 2024 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
Below is "Zero" -- a mathy poem by Petsinis which is also offered as a sample at this BRIDGES link (a link that advertises and celebrates those poets participating in the 2022 conference).
An important leader in the community of writers who link mathematics and poetry is Sarah Glaz --
a scholar who is not only a mathematician and poet but also an
organizer, participant, publicist, and recorder for numerous math-poetry
events. Glaz is an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University
of Connecticut and her UConn webpage is a vast source of mathematical and poetry treasures.
I first came to know Sarah well as we worked together on an important project -- gathering poems for the anthology Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics (A K Peters / CRC Press, 2008). A preview of this collection is available here. Here, from that collection, is one of my favorites -- a thoughtful poem about parenting and attitudes (love? or not?) toward mathematics:
Love Story by Sarah Glaz
If I ever write about you--
he said--
it will be a love story
a story about
how much you want to be loved.
Father, do you love
your little girl?
I brought you
a soup full
of numbers
formulas chopped to perfection
integrals fried to a crisp
Sarah Glaz, mathematics professor emerita at the University of Connecticut, is also a poet. AND, not only a poet but a coordinator of math-poetry activities for the annual BRIDGES Math-Arts conference. This year's conference will be held in Finland, August 1-5, 2022. This link leads to Glaz' announcement of the poetry program at BRIDGES 2022 -- and includes bios and sample poems by poets who plan to attend the conference AND also includes samples of work from some of us poets who have been part of BRIDGES in the past but will be unable to attend this year. Below are the opening lines from a poem by Glaz that is inspired by the mathematical field of Ring Theory.
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| The entire poem is available via Glaz's profile at this link. |
Founded by Reza Sarhangi (1952-2016) in 1998, the BRIDGES organization has had annual conferences and is an ongoing supporter of links between mathematics and the various arts. This year's conference is scheduled for August 1-5, 2022 at Aalto University in Helsinki and Espoo, Finland.
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| Bridges Conference Information is available at this link. |
Browsing and searching on the BRIDGES website can lead to a huge variety of math-arts connections -- including invited and contributed paper presentations, an exhibition of mathematical art, workshops, films, a poetry reading, music and theater -- including both descriptive and performance events. Here is a link to a list of links to lots of exhibitions. And this link leads to the results of a search in the Archive of BRIDGES papers that include the term "Poetry" in the title.
Adding to what the BRIDGES site includes is this rich source of math-poetry material at the University of Connecticut website of mathmatician-poet Sarah Glaz -- an active organizer of poetry at BRIDGES conferences.
Poetry and
mathematics
build BRIDGES to
understanding.
Earlier this month I attended (virtually) a mathematics conference and focused my attention on sessions that linked math and the arts. One of these was a math-poetry presentation by Sarah Glaz which celebrated Enhuedanna (early Sumerian author -- 23rd century, BCE) "Enheduanna – Princess, Priestess, Poet and Mathematician" and included this wonderfully descriptive poem by Glaz.
Twenty-Eight Lines for the En-Priestess Enheduanna by Sarah Glaz
In the beginning there is no beginning.
Eternity’s dark fingers hold a lantern
casting a glow
over the city-state of Ur,
where the Sumerian princess,
Enheduanna,
high priestess of the Moon God, Nanna,
daughter of King Sargon,
stretches the cord
measuring land and irrigation canals,
Last weekend, April 6-9, was a virtual national jmm - Joint Mathematics Meetings -- and I attended a number of sessions that explored links between the focused languages of mathematics and poetry. Presenters that I was privileged to hear included Carol Dorf, Sarah Glaz, Gizem Karaali, and Dan May. Math guy Douglas Norton of Villanova University organized contributed-paper session on "Mathematics and the Arts" and also hosted a Friday-evening poetry reading -- an event in which much of the action was writing and sharing Fibs (6-line poems with syllable count being the first six Fibonacci numbers). Here are several samples:
From Doug Norton: From Dan May:
Me? Pet
Write? me
A Fib? Or I
Not a fib. will bite you.
Put my heart in it. Nighttime is here, time
Let’s just see what comes bleeding out. to burn off all that hay I ate.
From David Reimann: From Gizem Karaali:
Joint one
Math golden
Meetings dragon
Zoom with friends metallic,
poetry alive majestic creature --
breathing words across many miles . . . not sure I want to meet one now
The BRIDGES Math-Arts organization held its 2021 conference (early in August) online -- and, although many of the meetings were available only to registrants, archives of papers are available at this link to all who are interested.
BRIDGES papers and events that link poetry and mathematics have been thoughtfully publicized by University of Connecticut emeritus professor Sarah Glaz who has created a webpage "Mathematical Poetry at Bridges" for that purpose. On that webpage are links to pages for individual Bridges conferences as far back as 2010 -- with poetry involvement in the conferences increasing in the later years. Here is a link to "Mathematical Poetry at Bridges 2021" -- a page with links to sample poems from more than 30 poets and also video readings of numerous poems. VISIT the site and savor the poems.
Below I offer one of the poems from the Bridges 2021 site. Playing with various ideas of "infinity" poet and math teacher Amy Uyematsu has created "This Thing Called Infinity" -- and she given me permission to offer it here.
This Thing Called Infinity by Amy Uyematsu
Every six months the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics offers a new online issue and includes a generous offering of mathy poems. Here is a link to the current issue (Vol, 11, No, 2, July 2021) and I offer --after a sample, which features a type of algebra problem -- the titles, authors, and links to JHM mathy poems.
Train Algebra by Mary Soon Lee
Do not use a calculator. Show your work.
Haruki leaves Chicago Union Station at 10:42 pm
on a train traveling at 60 miles per hour.
At 10:33 pm, Haruki boards the train.
He’s abandoned his job,
his collection of cactuses;
has only his cell phone, his wallet,
and a dog-eared paperback.
He walks through two carriages
before finding an open seat,
apologizes as he sits down
beside a woman his mother’s age.
The woman glares at him.
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| Learn more here: http://bridgesmathart.org/ |
Since 2009, interested contributors from mathematics and various arts -- poetry, music, theater, visual art . . . -- have gathered at an annual Bridges conference to celebrate and deepen math-art connections. Due to Covid-19 the 2020 conference was virtual but so far, with hope, the 2021 conference is planned as an in-person conference in Finland. Connecticut mathematician Sarah Glaz has been active in coordinating poetry events for the conference and here is a link to her announcement of the poetry program at Bridges 2021 -- including links to biographical sketches and poems by each participating poet. My own poem therein honors mathematician Emmy Noether.
Here is a link to several postings in this blog that celebrate math women.
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