Friday, April 23, 2010
Poems of Calculus
Monday, June 10, 2024
Remembering Bob Grumman . . .
Recently I discovered an online article -- "Bob Grumman’s mathematical universe: somewhere, minutely, a widening" by mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz) at Synapse International, an international visual poetry gathering, co-edited by Philip Davenport and karl kempton) that celebrates the work of math visual-poet Bob Grumman (1941-2015).. When I visited the article by Glaz, I also found several other articles that celebrated Grumman -- found here at this link for Issue 7, January 2024.
Below I post two of Grumman's Mathemaku -- visual poems that involve mathematical symbols and the brevity of Haiku; one of them is found in the article by Glaz mentioned above and the second is found here (along with others) in an article by karl kempton.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
BRIDGES 2013 -- Math-Art in the Netherlands
One of the scheduled readers on July 28 in Enschede is Scottish poet and statistician Eveline Pye; shown below is one of the poems she will read -- "Love of Algebra" :
Monday, March 18, 2013
Power of a theorem
A pantoum for the power of theorems by Sarah Glaz
The power of the Invertible Matrix Theorem lies
in the connections it provides among so many important
concepts… It should be emphasized, however, that the
Invertible Matrix Theorem applies only to square matrices.
―David C. Lay, “Linear Algebra”
The power of a theorem lies
In the connections it provides
Among many important concepts
Under a certain set of assumptions
Monday, June 20, 2022
Mathy Poems on YouTube
In a recent posting -- 6/08/2022 -- I tell of mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz and link to her website that has a collection of links to works by various mathy poets that have participated in BRIDGES math-arts conferences. Glaz not only offers connections to poet-information, she also offers links to YouTube recordings of poems -- and recently, to supply her with that, I worked with my granddaughter, Serena Growney, who has just finished her freshman year at high school and knows a lot more about using YouTube than I do. Here's a link to our Growney-Growney YouTube collaboration. (I had intended for Serena to focus on the book cover and not to catch my elbow, etc, in the background -- but perhaps all of that makes it more interesting.) For viewers who like to see the text of a poem as well as to hear it, here is a link to a blog posting of "Things to Count On" -- and below I offer the text of the poem (a very new one), "A Tragic Mathematical Romance."
A Tragic Mathematical Romance by JoAnne Growney
Abscissa, my darling, what is the
basis for your discontent? When I
calculate the
distance between us, I
even have trouble seeing it as
finite – its growth has a steep
graph, climbing out of my
Friday, April 13, 2018
Interview with mathy poets . . .
Each of these math-poetry women has been featured often in this blog -- and, in addition to reading the interview, I urge you to click on their names to explore these links: Marion Cohen Sarah Glaz Gizem Karaali
I close with a link to an article of mine, "Mathematics in Poetry, " published by the MAA a bit more than ten years ago -- an easy read that has generated some recent attention.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
More from BRIDGES poets . . .
Although he is not a participant in this year's BRIDGES, the name of Portuguese mathematician, poet, and translator Francisco José Craveiro de Carvalho appears near the top of the conference's poetry page for his translation of these lines that have become a sort of motto for BRIDGES poetry:
Newton's binomial is as beautiful as Venus de Milo.
What happens is that few people notice it.
--Fernando Pessoa (as Álvaro de Campos)
translated from the Portuguese by Francisco Craveiro
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Mathematical Modeling
Mathematical Modelling by Sarah Glaz
Mathematical modelling may be viewed
As an organizing principle
That enables us to handle
A vast array of information
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Poetry-and-Math -- Interdisciplinary Courses
I begin with a small item from Against Infinity, this one a "Found Poem" by Elaine Romaine (found in the math textbook Calclulus on Manifolds by Michael Spivak):
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Poets at BRIDGES
Michael Bartholomew-Biggs 19 October 2012
Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya 10 March 2013
Carol Dorf 31 May 2011
Sarah Glaz 7 November 2011
Emily Grosholz 24 September 2010
Alice Major 30 December 2012
Eveline Pye 12 April 2012
Here (and also to be offered at BRIDGES) is an elegant and thoughtful poem by Alice Major -- "For Mary, Turning Sixty" -- that compares mathematical meanings of terms with personal ones.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Can a mathematician see red?
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Links to mathy poems . . .
Glaz has gathered a Bridges 2020 Poetry Anthology (not yet published) that contains five of my mathy poems. I read aloud two of them --
Thursday, September 19, 2013
BRIDGES poems, from 17 poets
Friday, August 13, 2021
JHM -- a rich source of mathy poems
Every six months the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics offers a new online issue and includes a generous offering of mathy poems. Here is a link to the current issue (Vol, 11, No, 2, July 2021) and I offer --after a sample, which features a type of algebra problem -- the titles, authors, and links to JHM mathy poems.
Train Algebra by Mary Soon Lee
Do not use a calculator. Show your work.
Haruki leaves Chicago Union Station at 10:42 pm
on a train traveling at 60 miles per hour.
At 10:33 pm, Haruki boards the train.
He’s abandoned his job,
his collection of cactuses;
has only his cell phone, his wallet,
and a dog-eared paperback.
He walks through two carriages
before finding an open seat,
apologizes as he sits down
beside a woman his mother’s age.
The woman glares at him.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Remembering Israel Lewis Schneider
Thursday, April 13, 2023
Seeing the World through a dual prism . . .
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Tom Petsinis is a mathematics adviser at Deakin University and is author of nine poetry collections as well as theatrical works and books of fiction. He also is involved in the worldwide BRIDGES organization --which meets annually to investigate and celebrate connections between mathematics and the arts. This year's BRIDGES conference will be held July 27-31 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and next year's conference is planned for August 1-5, 2024 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
Below is "Zero" -- a mathy poem by Petsinis which is also offered as a sample at this BRIDGES link (a link that advertises and celebrates those poets participating in the 2022 conference).
Monday, January 31, 2011
Romanian poets -- Cassian and Barbu
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
A Cone with a Sphere on top
The phrase used as title for this post, "A cone with a sphere on top" -- from a slightly-mathy poem by Katharine O'Brien (1901-1986), "Einstein and the Ice Cream Cone" -- has caused me to visualize a Christmas tree and so, in this holiday season, I offer it to you. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!
Einstein and the Ice Cream Cone by Katharine O'Brien
His first day at Princeton, the legend goes,
he went for a stroll (in his rumpled clothes).
He entered a coffee shop --- moment of doubt --
then climbed on a stool and looked about.
Beside him, a frosh, likewise strange and alone,
consoling himself with an ice cream cone.
Monday, September 9, 2019
Is TWO more than ONE?
I asked the Zebra,
Are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Geometry of Love
The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell (England, 1621-1678)
My love is of a birth as rare
As ‘tis for object strange and high;
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility.