A recent email from Portuguese mathematician-poet F J "Francisco" Craveiro
de Carvalho brought a 40-year-old stanza to my attention. First published in the May, 1974 issue of POETRY Magazine, we have these enigmatic lines by William Virgil Davis. Enjoy!
The Science of Numbers: Or Poetry as Pure Mathematics
Whatever you add you add at your peril.
It is far better to subtract. In poetry,
Multiplication borders on madness.
Division is the mistress we agree to sleep with.
Showing posts with label division. Show all posts
Showing posts with label division. Show all posts
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Long division is difficult . . .
Last Monday included a visit with old friends of whom I see too little, Silver Spring artist Mark Behme -- with whom I did some art-poetry collaboration a few years back -- and Chevy Chase artist-writer-economist-activist, Kyi May Kaung. After lunch at nearby Mandalay we three walked to Mark's studio and hung out for a while, admiring and talking about his new work. When I arrived home, I dug out several poems developed from Mark's sculpture -- finding some pieces I'd not thought about for a while. Here is one of these, a mathy poem that partners with Mark's "Split Tales."
Which Girl Am I? by JoAnne Growney
Which Girl Am I? by JoAnne Growney
The girl who’s not forced to divide
into the good girl and the real one
is a lucky one. I was
eleven
when I felt a crack begin.
Labels:
art,
division,
girl,
JoAnne Growney,
Kyi May Kaung,
Mark Behme,
math,
poetry,
sculpture,
split,
two
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Dividing by Zero
Fairy godmothers have their magic wands and mathematician have division by zero as a way to make the impossible happen -- for example, we can show that 2 equals 3:
Labels:
Alvin White,
divide,
division,
equation,
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics,
magic,
nothing,
Robin Chapman,
zero
Monday, July 26, 2010
Trouble with Math in School
Sad and lonely experiences seem to produce more poems than joyful ones. And so it is easier to find a poem about a trouble in a math class than success there. Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) was a poet and translator whose work I admire. Here is her math-class poem:
Labels:
country school,
division,
Jane Kenyon,
math,
mathematics,
radical,
trouble
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