Years ago I taught a "liberal arts mathematics" course -- and for a time we used the text Mathematics, a Human Endeavor: A Textbook for Those Who Think They Don't Like the Subject by Harold R. Jacobs (W H Freeman, 1971); the text's topics included one new to me, the geometry of the paths of billiard balls. The ease I found with this mathematics ill-prepared me for the skill I needed to avoid embarrassment at a neighbor's new pool table -- and the memories of it all drew me immediately into Dan Brown's poem, "Why I Never Applied Myself to Pool," found in the March 2013 issue of Poetry.
Why I Never Applied Myself to Pool by Dan Brown
Showing posts with label oblique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oblique. Show all posts
Monday, July 8, 2013
Monday, January 31, 2011
Romanian poets -- Cassian and Barbu
Born in 1924, in Galati, Romania, Nina Cassian has published over fifty books -- besides poetry, she has works of fiction and books for children. Since 1985 she has lived in exile in the United States. Among those Cassian credits with strong influences on her poetry is mathematician / poet Dan Barbilian / Ion Barbu (1895-1961). This poem by Cassian illustrates those mathematical influences:
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