This poem is fun!
Horse’s Adventure by Jason Bredle
The horse discovered a gateway to another
dimension, and with nothing else to do, moseyed
into it just for grins, and man, you
don’t even want to know what happened
next—it was just, like, Horse at the French
Revolution. Horse in Franco’s living room.
Showing posts with label mathematical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mathematical. Show all posts
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
This plane of earthly love
Poet Joan Mazza celebrates qualities mathematical:
To a Mathematician Lover by Joan Mazza
As we embark on this plane
of earthly love, I should explain,
my experiences with men
have doubled my troubles
and halved my pleasures,
divided my time into fractions
To a Mathematician Lover by Joan Mazza
As we embark on this plane
of earthly love, I should explain,
my experiences with men
have doubled my troubles
and halved my pleasures,
divided my time into fractions
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
A jar in Tennessee
Several of my early insights concerning the connections between poetry and mathematics grew from ideas presented by poet Jonathan Holden -- of whom interviewer Chris Ellis (in 2000) asked this question:
Ellis: You have drawn similarities between poetry and mathematics. Can you explain the association or similarity between poetry and math in a way the mathematically challenged can grasp?
Holden: The "poetry and mathematics" analogy was simply to demonstrate, for those with some mathematical sophistication, that both languages "measure" things.
Ellis: You have drawn similarities between poetry and mathematics. Can you explain the association or similarity between poetry and math in a way the mathematically challenged can grasp?
Holden: The "poetry and mathematics" analogy was simply to demonstrate, for those with some mathematical sophistication, that both languages "measure" things.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Finding poems with "numbers"
Here's a quick and enjoyable activity:
Go to the website for The Poetry Foundation. Browse for a bit and, when you have completed your look-around, go to the search box toward the upper right and enter the word numbers, then click on the search button to bring a list of results. On that new page, go to the left column menu and click on Poems. Enjoy "Number Man" by Carl Sandburg and several other poems.
When your time permits, search using a second mathematical term, and a third. Bookmark the site. April is National Poetry Month and Mathematics Awareness Month. Celebrate!
Go to the website for The Poetry Foundation. Browse for a bit and, when you have completed your look-around, go to the search box toward the upper right and enter the word numbers, then click on the search button to bring a list of results. On that new page, go to the left column menu and click on Poems. Enjoy "Number Man" by Carl Sandburg and several other poems.
When your time permits, search using a second mathematical term, and a third. Bookmark the site. April is National Poetry Month and Mathematics Awareness Month. Celebrate!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Coleridge: A Mathematical Problem
"A Mathematical Problem" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) -- found online at Elite Skills Classics -- uses verse to describe construction of an equilateral triangle; Coleridge introduces the poem with a letter to his brother telling of his admiration of mathematics, a view rather rare among poets.
Labels:
angle,
centre,
circle,
construction,
equilateral triangle,
Euclid,
line,
mathematical,
mathematics,
poetry,
point,
problem,
proposition,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Sarah Glaz
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Immense polygons of evening
Sometimes one wonderful line makes me fall in love with a poem. I offer the following -- in which the title first draws me in and then "immense polygons of evening" delights me even more. Here, by Paula Closson Buck, is "A Betrayal of Integers," which uses mathematical terminology as the perfect mix of seasonings for a gourmet dish.
Labels:
integers,
inversions,
mathematical,
mathematics,
Paula Closson Buck,
poetry,
polygons
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
How much math does a math-poem need?
Poems offered in this blog vary in the levels of mathematics they contain. One mathematical reader commented privately that in some of the poems the use of mathematical terms is "purely decorative." Indeed, some people have particular expectations for poetry that relates to mathematics -- they want the content to use mathematical notation or to present a mathematical truth. Such as, perhaps, this abbreviated statement of the four-color theorem (formulated as a 4x4 square):
Labels:
curve,
diagonal,
four-color theorem,
John Vieira,
map,
mathematical,
mathematics,
poetry,
square,
Strange Attractors,
tallies,
vector
Saturday, November 20, 2010
More from Guillevic
My October 13 post presented three small poems by the French poet Guillevic (1909-97). Strongly drawn to his work, I have purchased the collection Geometries (translated by Richard Sieburth, Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010); Guillevic has found in each geometric figure a personality and a voice. Buy the book and enjoy!
Here are three additional samples from Geometries:
Here are three additional samples from Geometries:
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The Length of a Coastline
In the nineties, fifteen or so years ago, when I began posting mathematical poems on the Internet, two of my earliest connections were Ken Stange, a poet and polymath and professor of psychology at Ontario's Nipissing University, and his daughter Kate, then a teen. Kate publicized her love of mathematics and poetry by creating an online collection,"Mathematical Poetry: A Small Anthology" which she has continued to maintain for many years--during which she has completed undergraduate and graduate studies in mathematics.
Labels:
anthology,
Benoit Mandelbrot,
coastline,
distance,
Euclid,
fractal,
function,
infinite,
Kate Stange,
Ken Stange,
mathematical,
million,
poetry,
ruler,
significant digit
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
"Poetry, in other words, is mathematics"
From Tim Love, British poet and member of the Computer Systems Group in the Engineering Department at Cambridge University, I received this link -- National Poetry Day: unlock the mathematical secrets of verse -- to an article announcing the October 7 holiday in the UK. The article's author, Steve Jones (a professor of genetics at University College), goes so far as to begin his third paragraph with the sentence quoted as title to this posting. Follow the link and form your own view. Is mathematics truly important to poetry?
Labels:
mathematical,
mathematics,
palindrome,
pattern,
Phil Bolsta,
poet,
poetry,
Tim Love
Monday, October 4, 2010
"The Reckoning" by M. Sorescu (Romania,1936-96)
Works by poet and playwright Marin Sorescu (1936-1996) continue to be popular with Romanian readers--and he is one of the most-frequently translated of Romanian poets. In "The Reckoning" we see and hear his irony twisting among images chosen from mathematics.
Labels:
Andrea Deletant,
Brenda Walker,
carry,
line,
Marin Sorescu,
mathematical,
mathematics,
one,
parallel,
poetry,
Romania,
Romanian,
sum,
two,
zero
Monday, August 16, 2010
Poetry and applied mathematics
Back in the 1980's when I began taking examples of poetry into my mathematics classrooms at Bloomsburg University, I think that I justified doing so by considering poetry as an application of mathematics. For example, Linda Pastan applies algebra to give meaning to her poem of the same title. Here are the opening lines.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Jordie Albiston -- structure behind the writing
I love sonnets and the one below by Jordie Albiston is a favorite of mine.
Albiston is an Australian poet with a sense of orchestration learned from music. Her collection, The Sonnet According to 'M' recently won the New South Wales literary award. In her words:
Albiston is an Australian poet with a sense of orchestration learned from music. Her collection, The Sonnet According to 'M' recently won the New South Wales literary award. In her words:
Labels:
aftermath,
Australia,
integers,
Jordie Albiston,
math,
math (after),
mathematical,
mathematics,
music,
number,
physics,
rhyme scheme,
sonnet,
sum,
three-dimensional
Friday, June 18, 2010
Three poems with the word "axiom"
Poems that contain "number" are numerous; those with "axiom" are less easily found. Here are 3 of them -- by 19th century American poet, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), by Canadian poet and fiction writer, Margaret Atwood (b 1939), and by a poet from Virginia, Lesley Wheeler, whose work I recently have come to know. I particularly enjoy Lesley's poems about parenthood--because they ring true and also because when I was a parent of young children I was not finding time to write.
Labels:
axiom,
chaos,
create,
Emily Dickinson,
equation,
Lesley Wheeler,
Margaret Atwood,
mathematical,
mathematics,
nature,
poem
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Discovering the Secret
In this Robert Frost couplet, “The Secret Sits,” the poet may not have intended to speak of mathematics but his lines sing true for mathematical discovery.
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
from The Witness Tree.
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
from The Witness Tree.
Labels:
mathematical,
mathematics,
poetry,
Robert Frost,
secret
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