Wednesday, October 25, 2017
November 1 deadline for Math Haiku
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Math-themed -- and seasonal -- Haiku
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Mathematical images via Haiku
The recent issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics includes not only a variety of poems linked to mathematics -- it also has a special treat: a folder of Haiku -- 31 pages with contributions by 31 different writers. One of these contributors is Hannah Lewis and she has given me permission to share her work. Here are Hannah's Haiku:
But, Why?
x equals y, but—
why? dig deeper and all your
answers will unearth.
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.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
A Math-Poetry Essay -- in the Time of Corona
Springer Publishing is developing an e-book, Mathematics in the Time of Corona, an online collection of various reactions to the pandemic – due for release sometime in May 2021. One of the chapters to be included is by me, “Counting Syllables, Shaping Poems: Reflections” and this 4-page essay of mine will be available for free online reading (and download) until the end of March at this link: Counting Syllables, Shaping Poems: Reflections | SpringerLink.
Exponential growth:
small numbers doubling quickly—
a world upended!
To explore other postings of Haiku in this blog, click on this link.
A copy of the essay "Counting Syllables . . ." is also permanently available here.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
A number tells the story -- in these Haiku
A truck went by
three hours ago:
Smoke Creek desert
dumpt off the fantail
falling six miles
Stray white mare
neck rope dangling
forty miles from farms.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
A mathy Haiku
Mathematics
I, mathematics,
One plus root five over 2.
My soul is golden.
Here is a link to another mathy froth poem, this one "Division" by Ryley-Sue.
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Math can lead us to Poetry . . .
As I age and find myself slowing down in my math-poetry ventures it is a delight to see other mathy writers surging with energy and thoughtful publications.
One frequent source of math-arts connections is Sarah Hart, Professor Emerita of Mathematics, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Birbeck University, London. Here is a link to an article by Hart containing material excerpted from her collection Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature (Flatiron Books: New York, 2023).
Once Upon a Prime is a prose explanation completed with frequent literary examples. Here is a poem that her daughter, Emma, wrote "for Mummy's book."
Thursday, August 3, 2023
Creative, Mathy, Poetic -- Mathematickles
The website of author and screenwriter Betsy Franco contains a great variety of literary links (including this link to this interview of Franco by Oprah). Her writing includes poetry -- including collections of mathy poems for kids: Counting Our Way to the 100th Day and Mathematickles -- small mathy stanzas that are a bit like Haiku.
Here is a sample from Mathematickles:
Mathematickles are math haiku that tickle your brain. Fun words take the place of numbers in all sorts of math problems. Math becomes playful, beautiful, sassy, and creative in this whimsical romp through the seasons!
Mathematickles -- by Betsy Franco |
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Winning Math-Communication with Haiku
Each spring at MoMath (The National Museum of Mathematics in New York City) a contest is held -- for the Stephen Strogatz Prize for Math Communication -- inviting entries in Art, Audio, Performance, Social media, Video, and Writing. This year's deadline was April 28, 2023 and winners are posted at this link. (Info about mathematician Stephen Strogatz is available here.)
This year's winner in the Writing category was "An Exploration of Communicating Math Concepts Through Haiku" by Anaya Willabus -- a selection from her runner-up entry is shown below and the complete creation by Willabus is available here.
Winning math communication by Anaya Willabus |
Previous mentions in this blog of the Strogatz Prize may be found at this link.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Is mathematics discovered -- or invented?
Friday, April 9, 2010
April: along with baseball we celebrate poetry and mathematics
April is National Poetry Month
and
April is Mathematics Awareness Month
(This year's theme is "mathematics and sports")
In my own reading, baseball is the sport for which I have found the most poetry.
Monday, April 12, 2021
Pi-ku Contest in Australia -- deadline Two Pi Day
Using syllable counts to help to craft poems has been with us
since the sonnet and this blog has often presented square poems and Fibs
and Pilish and . .. and today we again focus on the digits of π. On
Pi-Day (3/14) Australia's Cosmos Magazine opened a Pi-Ku Contest which
asks for brief Haiku-like poems whose syllables-per-line are counted by
the first six digit of the decimal value of π. (Contest information is available at this link.) Entries must be submitted by 2Pi-Day, or 6/28.
Here are two mathy samples from the Cosmos contest-information site:
Learning STEM
is
necessary.
Do
remember science,
technology, engineering, maths. by Jennifer Chalmers
To say safe,
Keep
an area
of
Pi times one point five
metres squared around yourself always. by Lauren Fuge
Other poetry forms shaped by the digits of π include π-ku and Pilish.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Perfect circle, Haiku
Perfect circle round
the moon
In the center of the sky
by Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), from Book of Haikus (Penguin, 2003). Thanks, Francisco.
PS. If Kerouac were a mathematician he'd have noticed that "perfect" is implied by the definition of "circle" and is unnecessary. But Kerouac was a poet and he saw a different necessity.
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. |
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Choosing the GEOMETRIC SHAPE of a poem
Structural constraints often govern the patterns we find in poetry -- well-known in poetic history are rhythm-and-rhyme patterns including the sonnet and the villanelle and the limerick, and the syllable-counting pattern of some Haiku. Because many poems were shared orally, rather than in writing, patterns of counting and sound helped to ease the challenges of remembering.
For me a wonderful source for learning about new poetic forms is the blog of poet Marian Christie -- a writer and scholar, born in Zimbawe and now living in England , who has studied and taught both mathematics and poetry. In her very fine blog, Poetry and Mathematics, found here, Christie explores many of the influences that mathematics can have on poetry -- including, here in a recent posting, some effects transmitted by the SHAPE of a poem.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
TalkingWriting with Mathematics
TalkingWriting is an online journal that's celebrating its 10th birthday -- TEN YEARS of including mathematics in its mix of poetry. This mathy connection has grown strong through the poetry editorship of Carol Dorf, poet and retired math teacher. In this anniversary issue, poems are paired with works of visual art and the effect is stunning; from it, I offer below samples of poems by Amy Uyematsu and by me.
Amy Uyematsu's poem "Lunes During This Pandemic" thoughtfully applies
the counting structure of the "lune" (aka "American Haiku") with
three-line stanzas of 3/5/3 words per line.
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Celebrate the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Dear Arithmetic by Mary Soon Lee
Galileo's Verse by Bruce F. McGuffin
Hexagons by Barbara Quick
Changes and Deltas by Jim Wolper
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.
Monday, September 25, 2023
Poetry on the Side . . .
My friend Gregory Coxson (engineering professor at the US Naval Academy) is an explorer of new ideas and I enjoy his frequent emails that share his discovered math-poetry connections. Recently Coxson introduced me to the website of retired Virginia Tech professor Ezra Brown and, following the link Inspirational and Fun Stuff, I found this interesting collection of number-related Haiku -- beginning with a recollection of September 11.
Day of Horror
There is no doubt that
on September Eleventh
God sat down and cried.
“I worked hard…”
Bach was prolific:
One thousand compositions
and twenty children.