Recently I have found a rich source of mathy poems to explore -- at the website poemverse.org. For example, there are Poems about Math Class and The Beauty of Geometry: Exploring Angles through Poetry and The Beauty of Haiku Poems about Math . . . . and . . . lots more . . .
Here are two samples, with a link to more:
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| More mathy Haiku may be found here at poemverse.org. |
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."
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.
One of my recent discoveries of math-poetry is in the activities of Hofstra University professor Johanna Franklin, Franklin asks her students to compose Haiku and she has recently sent me the following material from various courses and semesters:
Math equals patterns
patterns not everyone sees
patterns we all need.
(introduction
to proofs, Spring 2023)
Why do I have my math students write haikus at the end of the semester? Because I love both poetry and playing with words, and the American conception of a haiku strikes me as a perfect poem for a mathematician: the counting of syllables, the symmetry.
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.
One of my much-appreciated math-poetry connections is with Scott W. Williams, a Professor of Mathematics at SUNY Buffalo and author of many scholarly papers and many poems. In a recent issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (JHM) I found (and valued reading) his "Impossible Haiku" -- a series of Haiku-stanzas that play with the Collatz Conjecture -- an unproven belief that for any starting number these two steps, performed in appropriate succession, eventually reach the number 1:
If the number is odd, multiply by 3 and add 1; if the number is even, divide it by 2.
Williams' "Impossible Haiku" may be found at this link. Another mathy poem by Williams (found here at his website) that I especially value is the one that I offer below -- a poem dedicated to his mother.
THE NINE-SIDED DIAMOND by Scott Williams
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.
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!
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| Mathematickles -- by Betsy Franco |
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.
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| Winning math communication by Anaya Willabus |
Previous mentions in this blog of the Strogatz Prize may be found at this link.
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.
Over time, the single-stanza poem called "Haiku" has been held to a variety of different standards. Often the Haiku was expected to have three lines and seventeen syllables -- in a 5-7-5 pattern. But this year as we now (in February) celebrate National Haiku Writing Month, relaxation of the syllable constraint is encouraged -- and the challenge of writing one-Haiku-per-day also is encouraged.
Here, using syllable-counts, is a "no-seven" Haiku (offered on the seventeenth)!
one two three four five
six eight nine ten eleven
twelve, thirteen, fourteen
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.
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| Enjoy exploring this innovative online mathy magazine. |
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.
Millions of Brood X 17-year cicadas have recently emerged in the Washington, DC area and they are the subjects of laughter, fear, recipes, and so on. (Wikipedia information about these cicadas is available here.) Washington Post writer John Kelly has asked readers to celebrate the cicadas with verse -- and below I offer one of the Haiku that Kelly gathered recently.
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| Found here in The Washington Post |
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.
Since 2011 February has been National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo); serious celebration of this event requires writing a Haiku each day; for this year's Valentine's Day, I offer a mathy Covid-Valentine Haiku.
LOVE has 4 letters --
2 for my hands, 2 for yours.
We wave, keep distant.
For the NaHaiWriMo blog, go here.
Find lots of MATHY VALENTINES by following this link
to the results of a blog SEARCH using the term "Valentine".
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.
During these difficult pre-election coronavirus days I have been turning to poetry, and especially favoring -- for their brevity -- Haiku. The January 2018 issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics offers a folder "Math in Seventeen Syllables: A Folder of Mathematical Haiku" -- with more than thirty poets sharing poetic insights using this ancient form. Here is one, by Laura Kline, that spoke to me today:
Peaceful living and
Nicely balanced equations
How we long for both
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.
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