Most of Martin Gardner's fans are avid puzzler's -- my connection with him is also one of admiration (he was a thoughtful person who was a master at making connections among disparate things) but we are connected via poetry, including topics such as counting all possible rhyme schemes for a given stanza and the constraint-based poetry of OULIPO . . ..
Gardner (1914-2010) was not a poet -- although he penned a quatrain or two, his great contribution was collecting and publicizing parodies and puzzle-verses by others. Here is a link to Gardner's collection of poetic parodies, and here is a link to many of Gardner's puzzles, including the stanza below, "How Old is the Rose-Red City?"
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2016
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Mathematics and Poetry ARE Similar
A recent email request sent me looking for a one-page article / quiz I had published in the American Mathematical Monthly in 1992 -- a list of 17 statements (quotations) each with a word missing. The missing words are either "mathematics" or "poetry" (or a related word). My claim is that, without using the author's name as a clue, it is difficult to decide which of these arts is intended. I offer here the first four of the statements and suggest you reflect on missing words and then, if you wish, follow this link to a file with the entire list -- including also the author of each quote and (afterward) a list of the missing words.
_____ is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. (Mathematics/Poetry)
To think the thinkable -- that is the ____'s aim. (mathematician/poet)
All _____ [is] putting the infinite within the finite. (mathematics/poetry)
The moving power of _____ invention is not reasoning
but imagination. (Mathematical/Poetic)
Labels:
imagination,
infinite,
invention,
mathematician,
mathematics,
Monthly,
poet,
poetry,
similar
Monday, October 19, 2015
Celebrating waves of light . . .
On October 8, Scotland's celebration of National Poetry Day had the theme "Light." An online collection of themed poems suitable for children is available here. From my Romanian friend, Doru Radu, who attended that celebration, I received poem-cards from the event. One of the cards contained a poem by filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait (1918-1999). I include that poem with its accompanying image below.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Daughter and Father - a warm geometry . . .
Kate Stange is a mathematician -- from the Canadian province of Ontario and now at the University of Colorado -- whose father, Ken Stange, is a visual artist and poet. I met them on the internet via our combined interests in the intersections of poetry and mathematics. Lots of years ago, Kate gathered an online anthology of mathy poems. One of her recent online ventures is the development of WIN -- Women in Number Theory. Below I offer one of Ken Stange's poems, taken from his collection Advice to Travellers (Penumbra, 1994).
Don't Mistake Your Mirror for a Window on the World by Ken Stange
Consider your daughter's first smile.
.
Don't Mistake Your Mirror for a Window on the World by Ken Stange
A reflection is both a thought about the world and the image we see in the mirror. -- Hippokrites
Consider your daughter's first smile.
.
Labels:
arc,
artist,
circles,
daughter,
geometry,
Kate Stange,
Ken Stange,
mathematician,
number theory,
poet,
poetry,
WIN
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
The culture for women in math and the sciences
Perhaps the phrase "ordinary" women scientists is an oxymoron -- but it should not be. Women should be free to populate the full range of aspiration and dedication to science or any other profession. In this spirit, I offer below the opening lines of a thought-provoking poem, "Ordinary Women Scientists," by science writer and poet Mary Alexandra Agner,
from the excellent and important anthology Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace.
from Ordinary Women Scientists by Mary Alexandra Agner
for R.C.
leave the lab late, flasks washed and waiting,
computer on an overnight crunch job,
warm dinner in the microwave
while wondering at excited water molecules,
wave their kids goodnight, grateful
Here are links to several recent items about math-women:
This link leads to a young mathematician's view of being "a female role model."
Here is a report of a panel at Harvard discussing roles of women in mathematics.
Here is a link to the Women in Maths Facebook page where visitors
may post information and offer support for math women.
This link leads to my poem celebrating Emmy Noether. Here we celebrate Caroline Herschel.
Here at mathblogging.org is a place to find all sorts of math-links.
from Ordinary Women Scientists by Mary Alexandra Agner
for R.C.
leave the lab late, flasks washed and waiting,
computer on an overnight crunch job,
warm dinner in the microwave
while wondering at excited water molecules,
wave their kids goodnight, grateful
Labels:
Lilly Ledbetter,
Mary Alexandra Agner,
math,
ordinary,
poem,
poet,
scientists,
women
Saturday, December 6, 2014
A scientist writes of scientists
Wilkes-Barre poet Richard Aston is many-faceted -- a teacher, an engineer, a textbook author, a technical writer. And Aston writes of those whose passion he admires-- in his latest collection, Valley Voices (Foothills Publishing, 2012) we meet laborers, many of them miners from the Wyoming Valley where he makes his home. Aston also writes of scientists and mathematicians -- and he has given permission for me to offer below his poems that feature Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, and Galileo Galilei. With the mind of a scientist and the rhythms of poetry, Aston brings to us clear visions of these past lives.
Scientist by Richard Aston
It took more than a figure, face, skin, and hair
for me to become Marie Curie,
wife of simple, smiling, selective, Pierre
who could recognize — because he was one — my genius.
Scientist by Richard Aston
It took more than a figure, face, skin, and hair
for me to become Marie Curie,
wife of simple, smiling, selective, Pierre
who could recognize — because he was one — my genius.
Labels:
center,
clock,
Galileo Galilei,
gravity,
idea,
Isaac Newton,
Marie Curie,
pendulum,
poem,
poet,
poetry,
Richard Aston,
scientist
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Poet as mathematician
Lillian Morrison (1917-2014) was a NYC poet and librarian whose work I first met in the poetry-with-math anthology, Against Infinity. Here is one of her poems from that collection.
Poet as Mathematician by Lillian Morrison
Having perceived the connexions, he seeks
the proof, the clean revelation in its
simplest form, never doubting that somewhere
waiting in the chaos, is the unique
elegance, the precise, airy structure,
defined, swift-lined, and indestructible.
Morrison's insightful poem disappoints me in one important way: her mathematician-poet is "he." Another Morrison poem, "The Locus of a Point," may be found in my posting for 15 September 2014.
Poet as Mathematician by Lillian Morrison
Having perceived the connexions, he seeks
the proof, the clean revelation in its
simplest form, never doubting that somewhere
waiting in the chaos, is the unique
elegance, the precise, airy structure,
defined, swift-lined, and indestructible.
Morrison's insightful poem disappoints me in one important way: her mathematician-poet is "he." Another Morrison poem, "The Locus of a Point," may be found in my posting for 15 September 2014.
Labels:
Against Infinity,
Lillian Morrison,
mathematician,
poet,
proof
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Poetry in Math Journals
The Mathematical Intelligencer (publisher of the poem by Gizem Karaali given below) and the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (an online, open-access journal edited by Mark Huber and Gizem Karaali) are periodicals that include math-related poetry in each issue. For example, in the most recent issue of JHM, we have these titles:
Articles:
Joining the mathematician's delirium to the poet's logic'': Mathematical Literature and Literary Mathematics by Rita Capezzi and Christine Kinsey
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways for Syllabic Variation in Certain Poetic Forms by Mike Pinter
Poems:
And here, from Gizem Karaali, is a poetic view of the process of mathematical discovery: the blank white page, the muddy flow of thoughts, the clarity that eventually (sometimes) blooms:
Articles:
Joining the mathematician's delirium to the poet's logic'': Mathematical Literature and Literary Mathematics by Rita Capezzi and Christine Kinsey
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways for Syllabic Variation in Certain Poetic Forms by Mike Pinter
Poems:
Computational Compulsions by Martin Cohen
Jeffery's Equation by Sandra J. Stein
The Math of Achilles by Geoffrey A. Landis
And here, from Gizem Karaali, is a poetic view of the process of mathematical discovery: the blank white page, the muddy flow of thoughts, the clarity that eventually (sometimes) blooms:
Monday, August 11, 2014
Narrated by a mathematician
Recently translated by Adam Morris, the novel With My Dog-Eyes (Melville House, 2014) by Brazilian writer Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) is narrated by a mathematician-poet. That fact of narration is what first drew me to the book. (See also this July 3 posting.) And then there is (related in Morris's introduction to the translation) Hilst's sad life, perhaps mirrored in her characters. These are the opening lines from the novel's narrator:
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
Labels:
Adam Morris,
edges,
faces,
Hlda Hilst,
magician,
mathematician,
poet,
polyhedron,
vertices
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Mathematician and Poet
Should I do it? Should I do a blog post on a novel by Brazilian poet Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) that I have begun to read but don't yet know how to understand?
Hilst's novel, With My Dog-Eyes, newly translated by Adam Morris (Melville House, 2014), attracted my attention because its narrator is a mathematician and a poet. Here are the lines with which the novel begins:
from With My Dog-Eyes by Hilda Hilst
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
Hilst's novel, With My Dog-Eyes, newly translated by Adam Morris (Melville House, 2014), attracted my attention because its narrator is a mathematician and a poet. Here are the lines with which the novel begins:
from With My Dog-Eyes by Hilda Hilst
The cross on my brow
The facts of what I was
Of what I will be:
I was born a mathematician, a magician
I was born a poet.
Labels:
Adam Morris,
Bertrand Russell,
Hilda Hilst,
magician,
mathematician,
poet
Friday, April 18, 2014
Poetry of Romania - Nora School, Apr 24
During several summers teaching conversational English to middle-school students in Deva, Romania, I became acquainted with the work of Romanian poets. These included: Mikhail Eminescu (1850-1889, a Romantic poet, much loved and esteemed, honored with a portrait on Romanian currency), George Bakovia (1881-1957, a Symbolist poet, and a favorite poet of Doru Radu, an English teacher in Deva with whom I worked on some translations of Bacovia into English), Nichita Stanescu (1933-1983, an important post-war poet, a Nobel Prize nominee -- and a poet who often used mathematical concepts and images in his verse).
On April 24, 2014 at the Nora School here in Silver Spring I will be reading (sharing the stage with Martin Dickinson and Michele Wolf) some poems of Romania -- reading both my own writing of my Romania experiences and some translations of work by Romanian poets. Here is a sample (translated by Gabriel Praitura and me) of a poem by Nichita Stanescu:
On April 24, 2014 at the Nora School here in Silver Spring I will be reading (sharing the stage with Martin Dickinson and Michele Wolf) some poems of Romania -- reading both my own writing of my Romania experiences and some translations of work by Romanian poets. Here is a sample (translated by Gabriel Praitura and me) of a poem by Nichita Stanescu:
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Mother Courage -- and speaking of opposites
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a poet, but I have not found mathematics in his poems. Still, I want to note here a fantastic performance of his play, Mother Courage and her Children, starring Kathleen Turner and a talented ensemble at Washington,DC's Arena Stage. Invited by my neighbors, Mitzi and Pati, I joined them yesterday for a riveting performance. Here is a link to "How Fortunate the Man with None," a Brecht poem heartily sung as "Solomon's Song" in the current musical production.
And here, with a nod to the mathematical bent of this blog, is a quote from Brecht's Mother Courage that involves counting; also, it is one of many examples of a strategy that Brecht uses often and well -- encouraging an idea by speaking of its opposite.
And here, with a nod to the mathematical bent of this blog, is a quote from Brecht's Mother Courage that involves counting; also, it is one of many examples of a strategy that Brecht uses often and well -- encouraging an idea by speaking of its opposite.
Labels:
Bertolt Brecht,
counting,
Mother Courage,
opposite,
peace,
poet,
war,
word play
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Graffiti Calculus
In my dreams I am an artist -- a cartoonist, perhaps, or a graffiti artist -- so skilled with lines and curves and so clever that my art gives pleasure AND delivers a punch.
And so I am gratefully into the math-art connections provoked by a new book by Mary-Sherman Willis -- aptly titled Graffiti Calculus (CW Books, 2013). I first met Willis in December, at Cafe Muse (where I will read next Monday, Feb 3 with Stephanie Strickland) and it was my pleasure also to hear her read again from that collection at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. These poems by Willis give us, in sixty poetic chapters, the story of a mother seeking her son by following his graffiti tags through the city. Here is a sample, sections 5 and 6:
And so I am gratefully into the math-art connections provoked by a new book by Mary-Sherman Willis -- aptly titled Graffiti Calculus (CW Books, 2013). I first met Willis in December, at Cafe Muse (where I will read next Monday, Feb 3 with Stephanie Strickland) and it was my pleasure also to hear her read again from that collection at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. These poems by Willis give us, in sixty poetic chapters, the story of a mother seeking her son by following his graffiti tags through the city. Here is a sample, sections 5 and 6:
Labels:
calculus,
continuous,
function,
graffiti,
integer,
JMM Poetry Reading,
limit,
Mary-Sherman Willis,
mathematics,
poet
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
A poet (math-daughter) speaks of math's beauty
I met Minnesota poet Roseann Lloyd when we served together on an AWP (Associated Writing Programs) conference panel on translation several years ago. There I was considering, as I so often am, the translation of mathematics into representations that poets understand. Roseann 's father was a mathematics professor and she learned early that "mathematics is its own beauty." And she has permitted me to offer you this poem.
HOW MY DADDY CHANGED WHEN HE GAVE UP TEACHING COLLEGE FOR SELLING INSURANCE by Roseann Lloyd
Once Daddy enthralled his students at SMS --
handsome in his navy blue suit and dusty hands,
chalk clicking out equations lickety-split.
A third-grader, I waited for him every day
in the cool marble hall. Listened to the rhythm
of the chalk on the board. Even then I knew
that pure math is an art equal to music, second
only to poetry in the realm of beauty.
HOW MY DADDY CHANGED WHEN HE GAVE UP TEACHING COLLEGE FOR SELLING INSURANCE by Roseann Lloyd
Once Daddy enthralled his students at SMS --
handsome in his navy blue suit and dusty hands,
chalk clicking out equations lickety-split.
A third-grader, I waited for him every day
in the cool marble hall. Listened to the rhythm
of the chalk on the board. Even then I knew
that pure math is an art equal to music, second
only to poetry in the realm of beauty.
Labels:
beauty,
equation,
math,
mathematics,
poet,
poetry,
prime,
Roseann Lloyd,
translation
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Two cultures
The opening poem of Uneasy Relations by mathematician-poet Michael Bartholomew-Biggs is concerned with similarities and differences between mathematical and poetic cultures -- a topic of immense interest also to me and one that I too try to address in my verse. I wonder -- HOW can I show non-mathematicians that good mathematics is poetry??!! And, moreover, how can I (mostly a mathematician) write (as advocated by Wallace Stevens and agreed with by other poets) of things rather than (as mathematics wants) of ideas. OR, may one make poetry of ideas?
Two Cultures by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
Graves claimed there isn't
much money in poetry:
and none vice-versa.
The first part stays true
if we replace poetry
by mathematics.
Two Cultures by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
Graves claimed there isn't
much money in poetry:
and none vice-versa.
The first part stays true
if we replace poetry
by mathematics.
Monday, September 23, 2013
A poet re-envisions space
University of Pennsylvania professor Robert Ghrist, in his September 19 lecture ("Putting Topology to Work") at the MAA's Carriage House, credited poet John Milton (1608-1674) with the first use of the word space as an abstract entity -- and, Ghrist asserted, by so doing, Milton opened a door to the study of abstract space (known in mathematics as topology).
The following material is a 24 September correction
from my 23 September posting. For I discovered -- in a thoughtful email from Ghrist --
that the proper citation of "space" was not from line 50 of Book 1 but from line 89 of Book 7.
(I invite you go to Project Gutenberg for Paradise Lost in its entirety.)
Here, below, I have replaced my original posting of lines 44-74 of Book 1
with lines 80 - 97 of Book 7 -- lines taken from my shelf copy of Milton's Paradise Lost,
the 1968 Signet Classic Edition, edited by Christopher Ricks.
In the selection below and throughout his epic, Milton replaces past visions of hell down-in-the-earth and heaven up-in-the-sky with more complex and abstract configurations.
Labels:
abstract,
Cassius Keyser,
John Milton,
Karl Patten,
MAA,
mathematics,
Paradise Lost,
poet,
poetry,
Robert Ghrist,
space,
topology
Thursday, September 19, 2013
BRIDGES poems, from 17 poets
Due to the hard work of mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz, poetry has been an important part of recent BRIDGES-Math-Art Conferences. And, under her editing, a Bridges 2013 Poetry Anthology has been released, featuring poetry from these poets who participated in one or more of the three most recent BRIDGES conferences (Enschede, Netherlands, 2013; Towson, Maryland, 2012; Coimbra, Portugal, 2011).
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Out of 100 -- in the Klondike Gold Rush
Adding to my recent post on 19 August I note that OEDILF is seeking submissions.
Join the project: submit limerick definitions of (math) terms for OEDILF consideration.
Join the project: submit limerick definitions of (math) terms for OEDILF consideration.
One of my favorite poets is the 1996 Nobelist Wislawa Szymborska (1923 - 2012, Poland); one of my favorites of her poems is "A Contribution to Statistics." Szymborska's poem served as a model for a poem of mine shown below, about Gold Rush Days in Skagway, Alaska. Written while I was poet-in-residence at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, (in Skagway), this poem draws on historical data from the park's library to paint a bleak picture of wealth and survival in those gold-mad days.
Counting in the Klondike by JoAnne Growney
after Wisława Szymborska
Of 100 who left Seattle for Skagway in 1898
40 made it to the gold fields
8 found gold.
Labels:
100,
Alaska,
Gold Rush,
Klondike,
OEDILF,
poem,
poet,
Skagway,
statistics,
Wislawa Szymborska
Friday, April 5, 2013
Miroslav Holub -- interview, poems
Frequent readers of this blog probably know that Miroslav Holub is one of my favorite poets. And it was a great delight to get a recent e-mail message with a link to a previously unpublished 1994 interview with this scientist and poet -- appearing in the April 2 posting in the Virginia Quarterly Review blog. The interview, conducted and written by Irene Blair Honeycutt, has these opening sentences: "Miroslav Holub
(1923–1998) is one of the most internationally well-known Czech poets.
He led a career as a scientist, and his poetry is known for its
sharpness and wit, as well as descriptions of aging and suffering."
Labels:
accuracy,
Czech,
fraction line,
Miroslav Holub,
parallels,
poet,
reflection,
scientist
Sunday, March 3, 2013
A mathematician, a poet, a woman
When I contacted University of Kansas mathematician Judith Roitman for permission to include her poem "Sixth Cosmogony" in this poetry-math blog she was quick to point out that this is not really a mathy poem. For example, the math term "differentiated" in the first stanza of the poem is not being used in its mathematical sense. However, my motivations for including the poem remain. First, and quite important: this is a poem by a mathematician who is also a woman and a poet. Second, I am interested in mathematicians' reactions to seeing math terms in non-mathematical contexts; are mathematical meanings part of what you think of any time that you hear a math term such as "differentiate" or "factor" or "commute"?
Labels:
cosmogony,
differentiate,
Judith Roitman,
mathematical,
mathematician,
poem,
poet,
random,
space,
Under the Microscope,
woman
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