Guided by Facebook, I have found and explored a variety of Math Poems on YouTube. Here is a sample stanza from a poem that I enjoyed today:
from "Beautiful Mystery" by Trixie Batista (here on YouTube) |
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. To receive email notifications of new postings, contact JoAnne at joannegrowney@gmail.com.
Guided by Facebook, I have found and explored a variety of Math Poems on YouTube. Here is a sample stanza from a poem that I enjoyed today:
from "Beautiful Mystery" by Trixie Batista (here on YouTube) |
Lots of mathy poems are available on YouTube -- for example, recordings by poetry participants in Bridges Math-Arts conferences are available; here is a link to a webpage (maintained by Sarah Glaz) for 2022 Bridges poets and poems . Today I have been fascinated by and want to share some words from an Applied Mathematics YouTube video by spoken word poet Dan Simpson, a UK writer, performer, producer, and educator. A few lines from the poem appear below, followed by a link to the video performance.
I love the curvature of your wave form the way you deviate from the norm . . . when we touch it's an electric storm . . . if you were described by numbers they would all be trying this but like Heisenberg you're uncertain . . . this verse is in a language that you can understand bringing maths and poetry together in double helix sounds . . . statistically speaking I'll make you laugh sooner or later . . .
Dan Simpson's complete and very entertaining YouTube performance of Applied Mathematics is available here. Other mentions in this blog of Dan's poem and other YouTube recordings may be found at this link.
The arrival in 2020 of COVID caused a huge number of gatherings to take place online -- including mathematics conferences and poetry readings- -- and performances at many of these special events have been recorded on YouTube. I offer below a few links to recordings and to further information. Recording myself reading poems would probably not been one of my chosen activities but mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz, who has been an enthusiastic organizer of poetry events for the BRIDGES Math-Arts Conferences, has requested recorded samples from each participating poet.
One way to start YouTube math-poetry explorations is to go to this link -- a link I found by searching for "poetry math" on YouTube. In this blog, we have mentioned YouTube a bit in the past -- and the blog's SEARCH feature finds this list of previous postings that feature YouTube links.
In a recent posting -- 6/08/2022 -- I tell of mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz and link to her website that has a collection of links to works by various mathy poets that have participated in BRIDGES math-arts conferences. Glaz not only offers connections to poet-information, she also offers links to YouTube recordings of poems -- and recently, to supply her with that, I worked with my granddaughter, Serena Growney, who has just finished her freshman year at high school and knows a lot more about using YouTube than I do. Here's a link to our Growney-Growney YouTube collaboration. (I had intended for Serena to focus on the book cover and not to catch my elbow, etc, in the background -- but perhaps all of that makes it more interesting.) For viewers who like to see the text of a poem as well as to hear it, here is a link to a blog posting of "Things to Count On" -- and below I offer the text of the poem (a very new one), "A Tragic Mathematical Romance."
A Tragic Mathematical Romance by JoAnne Growney
Abscissa, my darling, what is the
basis for your discontent? When I
calculate the
distance between us, I
even have trouble seeing it as
finite – its growth has a steep
graph, climbing out of my