Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Fib -- a form that gathers strength
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . .
Poet Athena Kildegaard's collection Red Momentum (Red Dragonfly Press, 2006 ) consists entirely of Fibonacci poems. The following samples from Kildegaard's collection illustrate the way that increasing line lengths can build to dramatic effect. From a simple start, complexity grows.
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.
Monday, December 27, 2021
Amid uncertainties -- compose a Fib
How many Corona-virus cases will the new year bring?
Stop,
Think!
Wonder
What to say . . .
I gather my thoughts
and hope I can make a poem.
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Shaping Poems with Numbers
Numerical patterns can help guide our minds and fingers to create poems -- and one of the patterns I like is the Fibonacci numbers -- a number sequence for which the first non-zero numbers are both 1, and each succeeding number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, . . .
Formation of a six-line poem using the first 6 of these numbers as syllable-counts, gives a tiny poem that has been named a Fib.
For me, using these Fibonacci numbers -- starting small and growing -- as syllable counts offers a nice structure for developing my thoughts around a particular topic. I like it for myself (a couple examples below) and I suggest to my students when I am asking them to share their math-related viewpoints.
When When
your your
father mother
is mathy is mathy
what are the chances what are the chances
that interest is passed to you? that interest is passed to you?
These days I celebrate the fact that I have granddaughters who like math!
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Remembering Thomas Schelling (1921-2016)
I want to honor Schelling with a poem, but . . .
I
can’t
find a
poem for
Thomas Schelling – thus
I am compelled to write this Fib.
Thanks for thinking well, for sharing your keen thoughts with us.
Monday, December 4, 2023
Should I take notes?
A Fib about how I think and learn |
Monday, January 3, 2011
From 2010 -- titles and dates of posts
A scroll through the 12 months of titles below may lead you to topics and poets/poems of interest. Also helpful may be the SEARCH box at the top of the right-hand column; there you may enter names or terms that you would like to find herein.
Dec 31 The year ends -- and we go on . . .
Dec 30 Mathematicians are NOT entitled to arrogance
Dec 28 Teaching Numbers
Dec 26 Where are the Women?
Dec 21 A Square for the Season
Dec 20 "M" is for Mathematics and . . .
Monday, February 1, 2021
What will the groundhog predict?
Having grown up in western Pennsylvania, not far from Punxsutawney, I have long been interested in Groundhog Day -- on February 2, a legendary groundhog emerges from its burrow and predicts whether the current year will have an early spring. This year I celebrate with a Fib, a stanza whose syllable counts follow the Fibonacci numbers:
Will
the
groundhog --
tomorrow --
see its shadow, doom
us to six more weeks of winter?
Here is a link to a SEARCH list of previous blog postings for Groundhog Day.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Fighting the heat -- with limericks!
Heated Limerick by Madeleine Begun Kane
One-hundred degrees? I may swoon.
Yes, I’m singing a very hot tune.
And I’m down in the mouth
Cuz this isn’t the south,
But Bayside, New York — early June.
At her long-standing and encyclopedic website, madkane.com, Kane offers lots more limericks -- and instructions for writing a limerick -- and also math-humor.
A wonderful source of math-humor and limericks is Ben Orlin's site, "Math with Bad Drawings." Here is a sample:
A limerick for mathematicians -- by Ben Orlin |
A clever computational limerick -- by Leigh Mercer |
To find limericks previously posted in this blog, use the SEARCH box in the right-hand column OR follow this link.
Friday, July 22, 2022
Worried about Climate Change
When working with students in poetry workshops I often ask them to write to satisfy a constraint -- perhaps a Fib or a square poem -- in order to help them focus their thoughts. This morning -- in the middle of a heat wave -- I focused my thoughts squarely on my growing concerns about climate.
Steamy weather. I count
the degrees. I count on
air conditioning. But
my cooling system adds
to global warming. What
is the right thing to do?
Here is a link to previous postings in this blog that offer climate concerns.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Connecting mathematics to a larger world . . .
I will teach
mathematics
by punctuality
and perfect attendance.
In 1959, a Rede Lecture by C. P. Snow (1905-1980) famously identified two separate cultures -- the scientists and the humanists -- and these days what is often termed the STEM to STEAM movement is attempting to humanize the sciences by emphasizing the necessity of the arts in scientific study.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Colorado Math-Poetry Contest -- deadline 11-12-19
Last year a similar contest was held in Maryland, with winning student-poems (see poster) read Jan. 19, 2019 in Baltimore. And now, for students in Colorado:
Pick
up
your pen.
Think of ways
that math is magic.
Shape your words into a poem!
Thursday, January 13, 2022
+ plus magazine . . . living mathematics
One of the very fine sources of interesting and new ideas from mathematics is +plus magazine -- available since 1997 from the University of Cambridge -- at this link. Way back in 2010 they featured a Fib from this blog (at this link) and they have been generous in their mentions of Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics (A K Peters/CRC Press, 2008), edited by Sarah Glaz and me. They also have introduced (at this link) a wonderful collection of scientific Haiku (SCIKU Icon Books, 2014) -- edited by Simon Flynn, written by students at the Camden School for Girls. Here are two samples from that collection:
Gravity
An attractive force
Between all objects with mass
Just like you and me.
Dissolving confusion
To some, solutions
Are answers; to chemists they
Are still all mixed up.
Enjoy exploring this innovative online mathy magazine. |
Friday, August 10, 2018
Code switching -- and a Fib . . .
1 When
1 I
2 speak to
3 you, I wish
5 to be understood.
8 If I change my language for you
13 am I being thoughtful -- or phony and insincere?
My recent viewing of the film Sorry to Bother You -- in which a black telemarketer is helped to succeed by using a "white" voice -- has led me to think more about times that I, often unconsciously, switch my language for different listeners.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
From 2011 -- dates, titles of posts
Scrolling through the 12 months of titles below may lead you to topics and poets/poems of interest. Also helpful may be the SEARCH box at the top of the right-hand column; there you may enter names or terms that you would like to find herein.
Dec 30 Good Numbers
Dec 26 A mathematical woman
Dec 22 Counting on Christmas
Dec 20 Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination
Dec 17 Ruth Stone counts
Dec 14 A puzzle with a partial solution
Dec 11 Poetry captures math student
Dec 8 Monsieur Probabilty
Dec 5 Poetic Pascal Triangle
Dec 2 Mathematics works with witchcraft
Monday, August 21, 2023
Shaping a Poem with Fibonacci numbers
One of my favorite websites to visit is this varied and thoughtful "Poetry and Mathematics" collection of postings by Marian Christie.
Throughout history, people who write poems have often been aided by constraints. When we sit down to write, writing the words that first occur to us -- then shaping the word into extended meanings but following a pattern of rhythm or rhyme or word-count . . . or . . . . For many poets the sonnet, for example, has been a poetic structure that shapes thoughts into special arrangements of words.
In long-ago days, when print and screen versions of poems were not easily available, rhyme schemes were an important aid -- helping one's memory to keep a poem in one's head. Now, aided by widely available print and online visibility, poetry has moved into new forms -- including a variety of visual arrangements.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Poetry at the Joint Mathematics Meetings
During January 4-7, 2024, mathematics meetings were held in San Francisco, CA. Although unable to attend, I have spent some time browsing abstracts of the presentations there and found several that involve poetry. Suzanne Sumner of the University of Mary Washington, gave a presentation entitled "How Poetry Informs the History of Mathematics" and here is a link to the abstract for Sumner's presenation.
From Sumner's abstract I learn that the ancient Sanskrit scholar Acharya Pingala was likely to have been the first to use Fibonacci numbers and Pascal's triangle in his poetry. Using this blog's SEARCH feature, I found this link to prior mentions of Fibonacci in this blog and this link to mentions of Pascal.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Browse Math-Poetry Links . . .
- TITLES OF POSTS (with links)
- January, 2020
- December, 2019
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Try it -- you'll like it -- write an ACROSTIC poem!
Poets also often find constrains helpful in shaping their words into special meaning. For example, the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the poetry-pattern called a sonnet have led to many notable poems. In this blog, in earlier postings, we have celebrated the FIB -- a six line poem whose syllable-counts obey the Fibonacci numbers. A popular form of poetry for calling attention to a particular idea is an ACROSTIC poem -- a poem in which the first (or other) letters of each line spell out a word or phrase. Here is my sample: MATH POEMS HELP US SEE.
M My
A algebra
T teacher
H has
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!