Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Continuing Climate Concerns
In continued support of climate concerns--which seem to me often to fit a square-poem format -- here is "Arctic," a 5x5 square by poet Linda Benninghoff, author of six chapbook collections.
Monday, April 22, 2024
EARTH DAY -- what are ways to preserve our planet?
Save
our
Mother
Earth -- conserve
our resources, shift
to non-polluting substances.
As many of you readers know, the poem above is an example of a FIB -- a six-line poem with syllable-counts matching the first six Fibonacci numbers, When I sit down to write about a particular topic, I often find the the FIB format is a good way to start -- developing an idea starting with single words and gradually developing longer phrases. And, today, outside of this blog, I am trying to learn more about earth friendly substances.
If you have time to be interested in more mathy and earth-friendly poems, this link leads to the results of a blog search for climate change and this second link leads to previous Earth Day blog postings.
This link leads to postings -- and poems -- in this blog related to CLIMATE.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Tragedy of the Commons
recalling ecologist Garrett Hardin (1915-2003)
and his 1968 wisdom, "Tragedy of the Commons."
Maximum
may not be
optimum.
Monday, August 9, 2021
Once upon a time, 350 was our goal
Back in 2007, 350 parts per million was the "safe upper limit" for CO2 in our atmosphere -- a figure presented by NASA scientist Jim Hansen in December 2007 and widely agreed upon. From that number the website 350.org was born. On October 24, 2009, 350 Poems celebrated an international day of climate action with a posting, from poets all around the world, of 350 poems of 3.5 lines each -- each responding to concern for man-made climate change. My own entry (#265 here in the listing) I offer below.
It's sad news that recent data (more than 400 ppm of CO2 in our atmosphere) verifies our greedy disregard of this important warning. What can we do?
The Spider (265/350) by JoAnne Growney
Spinner of intricate, twenty-inch silk food snares.
Twenty inches — not fifty or two hundred.
She knows the limits to her senses. Humans
keep building bigger webs.
This 3.5 line poem was first posted almost ten years ago (here at this link).
Monday, February 24, 2020
Counting syllables, considering snowflakes
Silence
is
sometimes the strongest thing we can say.
SNOWFLAKE by Lawrence Mark Lesser
Some say
‘‘no two alike’’,
others say
‘‘not too alike’’.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Squares of Climate Concern
There is no
place to throw
that's away.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Poems with Numbers
Monday, April 9, 2018
March for Our Lives -- Numbers and complexities!
Daddy Yankee:
The Irony of ‘Hamilton’
Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s
Advocacy for Puerto Rico
about Alexander Hamilton in Lapham’s Quarterly.
I draw in my breath in disbelief.
How does one take in all those numbers?
How is it possible for an island of this size
to have a debt of seventy six billion dollars?
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
50 years after "The Population Bomb"
from Population Pressure Song by Calvin Stewart & Joice Marie (©2008)
. . .
Pop pop, goes the population
Got to stop, the population
While we still have our woods
In our quiet neighborhoods
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Problems with no solutions
As a grandparent of school-age children I am deeply worried about the world they are inheriting. I want it to offer a healthy environment and safety with vast opportunities for women as well as men. And my own writing often supports these views. I encourage readers to use the blog SEARCH to find an assortment of poems on a theme -- such as "girl" or "environment" or . . . For example, here is a link to postings that include the word opportunity. Scrolling through that list leads to this posting of Eavan Boland's poem, "Code," which honors Grace Murray Hopper.
Square worries
Unless miracles give
our earth new resources
that prove unlimited,
unchecked population
growth and climate change are
problems with no solutions.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Visit JHM for Mathy Poems
I am particularly intrigued by Greenwell's poem because the Prisoner's Dilemma is a decision model close to my concerns about the environment. (More comments below.)
Prisoner's Dilemma by Raymond N. Greenwell
Your best choice is my demise.
My wise choice is your defeat.
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Looking back . . . to previous posts . . .
BROWSE and ENJOY!
Back in January 2020 I gathered a list of titles of previous posts and posted it here at this link. And below I offer titles of postings -- with links -- since that time.
you are invited to explore the SEARCH feature in the right-hand column
OR to browse the list of Labels (also to the right) -- and click on ones that interest you.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
2015 (and prior) -- titles, dates, links for posts
OR follow these year-number links to go to lists of posts through 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 -- and all the way back to March 2010 when this blog was begun. At the top of the column to the right is a SEARCH box for the blog and this link leads to a PDF file of searchable topics and names of poets and mathematicians presented herein. Scrolling down the right-hand column leads to a partial list of LABELS that are linked to a list of blogs that contain them.
Dec 31 Precision leads to poetry . . .
Dec 28 Can a woman learn science (or mathematics)?
Dec 24 And now welcome Christmas . . .
Dec 22 Let us not forget . . .
Dec 20 Who put the pie in Pythagoras?
Dec 18 A student writes poetry for a math class . . .
Dec 15 Generalized Pythagorean Theorem--a visual poem?
Monday, April 3, 2017
Math-Stat Awareness Month -- find a poem!
AND
National Poetry Month!
Celebrate with a MATHY POEM, found here in this blog! Scroll down!
Mar 28 Split this Rock, Freedom Plow Award, April 21
Mar 27 Math-themed poems at Poets.org
Mar 23 Remember Emmy Noether!
Monday, April 5, 2021
Mathy Poets plan for 2021 BRIDGES Conference
The Annual BRIDGES Math-Art
Conference will be virtual again this year (August 2-6, 2021) and
mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz has developed an online array of poets and
poetry to be part of this program. Bios and sample poems are already available here.
Participating poets include: Marian Christie, Carol Dorf, Susan Gerofsky. David Greenslade, Emily Grosholz, JoAnne Growney, Lisa Lajeunesse, Marco Lucchesi, Mike Naylor, Osmo Pekonen, Tom Petsinis, Eveline Pye, Any Uyematsu, Ursula Whitcher -- and, also, these open-mike participants: Susana Sulic, S. Brackert Robertson, Stephen Wren, Marion Deutsche Cohen, Connie Tetteborn, Jacob Richardson, Robin Chapman. Stephanie Strickland. (Bios and sample poems here.)
Here is a sample from the BRIDGES poetry program:
Descartes by Eeva-Liisa Manner
translated from the Finnish by Osmo Pekonen
I thought, but I wasn't.
I said animals were machines.
I had lost everything but my reason.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
How many grains of sand?
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Mathematicians are NOT entitled to arrogance
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
December 2016 (and prior) -- titles, dates of posts
Dec 31 Happy New Year! -- Resolve to REWARD WOMEN!
Dec 27 Celebrate Vera Rubin -- a WOMAN of science!
Dec 26 Post-Christmas reflections from W. H. Auden
Dec 19 Numbers for Christmas . . .
Dec 15 Remembering Thomas Schelling (1921-2016)
Dec 12 When one isn't enough ... words from a Cuban poet
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Seeing the NEWS in square stanzas
Sharks don't kill
as many
as cows do.
Also, Pope Francis has spoken out, expressing his concerns for our environment:
Pope Francis,
like me, sees
climate change--
a real
problem.