A mathematician is probably too close to her subject matter to speak playfully about it -- and thus she, even more than others, appreciates a phrase like "each equation is a playful catch, like bees into a jar," offered by Lisa Rosenberg in the poem below. In "Introduction to Methods of Mathematical Physics," Rosenberg uses a child's anxiety about insects as a way to describe fear of mathematics and offers a smidgen of respect for "those few" who are fearless.
Introduction to Methods of Mathematical Physics by Lisa Rosenberg
You must develop a feeling for these symbols
that crawl across a page, for the text overrun
with scorpions. Like those books about insects
you read as a child, scared to touch the magnified photos,
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