Poems offered in this blog vary in the levels of mathematics they contain. One mathematical reader commented privately that in some of the poems the use of mathematical terms is "purely decorative." Indeed, some people have particular expectations for poetry that relates to mathematics -- they want the content to use mathematical notation or to present a mathematical truth. Such as, perhaps, this abbreviated statement of the four-color theorem (formulated as a 4x4 square):
Showing posts sorted by date for query visual. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query visual. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Self-portrait with numbers
Visual poet Geof Huth lives and blogs in Schenectady, NY. In 2010 he turned 50 and early in 2011 he sent me (via snail mail, on smooth white paper) a letter. The letter is a poem; the poem is a celebration of life, a sort of self-portrait, using numbers. Geof gave me permission to post it here.
Labels:
counting,
digit,
Geof Huth,
JoAnne Growney,
meter,
natural number,
numbers,
poem,
poetry,
portrait
Monday, January 3, 2011
From 2010 -- titles and dates of posts
List of postings March 23 - December 31, 2010
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 . . .
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 . . .
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Theorem-proof / Cut-up / poems
For mathematicians, reading a well-crafted proof that turns toward its conclusion with elegance and perhaps surprise -- this mirrors an encounter with poetry. But can one have that poetry-math experience without being fluent in the language of mathematics? Below I offer a proof (a version of Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes) and a "cut-up" produced from that proof-- and I invite readers (both mathematical and non-mathematical) to consider them as poems.
Labels:
Brion Gysin,
contradiction,
cut-up,
Euclid,
finite,
infinite,
mathematics,
poem,
poetry,
prime,
proof,
theorem,
William Burroughs
Monday, November 8, 2010
One type of "mathematical" poetry
When I began (in the 1980s) collecting examples of "mathematical poetry," I sought lines of verse that included some mathematical terminology. More recently, my view has expanded to include structual, visual, and algorithmic influcences from mathematics; however, the two samples from the work of William Blake (1757-1827), presented below, fit into that initial category -- selected as "mathematical" because of their vocabulary -- one speaks of "infinity," the other of "symmetry." (Blake was an artist as well as poet and his volumes of poetry were illustrated with his prints.) The following stanza is the opening quatrain for Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence."
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Visual Poetry -- from Karl Kempton
Poet Karl Kempton offers readers a great variety of visual poetry -- often including elements of mathematics. Kaz Maslanka's MathematicalBlogspot , Geof Huth's Visualizing Poetics blog, and Dan Waber's Logolalia offer introductions to the work of Kempton and other visual poets. Here are three samples from Karl's collection, 3 Cubed: Mathematical Poems, 1976 - 2003 (Runaway Spoon Press, 2003).
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
In the same family -- a poet and a mathematician
When a poet and a mathematician are members of the same family, understandings result. Ohio poet Cathryn Essinger is a twin of a mathematician and writes about this relationship. Here are opening stanzas of two of her poems.
Labels:
bound,
Cathryn Essinger,
combinatorics,
congruence,
counting,
geometry,
infinity,
Kathabela Wilson,
mathematics,
node,
poetry,
prime,
rational,
Rick Wilson,
twin,
two
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Poetry-and-Math -- Interdisciplinary Courses
On July 1 my posting considered math-poetry anthologies and began with a reference to Against Infinity, the discovery of which was a catalyst for my own inclusion of poetry in my mathematics classrooms. Other mathematicians and writers have gone further and developed interdisciplinary courses--such courses are the topic for this posting.
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):
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):
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Digital poetry -- Stephanie Strickland et al
Stephanie Strickland writes with mastery of numbers, as we see in her poem below. But numbers are only the beginning of her work. A director of the Electronic Poetry Association and author of "Born Digital," Strickland is one of the leaders in the development of new types of poems that are constructed using animation and rearrangements and other visual and aural communications made possible by computers and the internet.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Poetry with mathematical symbols
On the internet and elsewhere a variety of viewpoints are expressed about the criteria poetry should satisfy to be "mathematical." Today I want to introduce samples and links for three writers: Bob Grumman (Florida), Gregory Vincent St Thomasino (New York), and Kaz Maslanka (California). Grumman and Maslanka write poems with a strong visual element and, as the blogs and comments for all three testify, they differ in their views of what may be properly called "mathematical" poetry..
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The epitome -- Euler's Identity
Mathematics is a visual language. As with poetry, placement on the page is a key ingredient of meaning. Here is one of my favorite visual poems, "The Transcendence of Euler's Formula," by Neil Hennessy, a Canadian poet and computer scientist. For additional math-poetry from Neil, follow the link.
epitome
epitome
epitome
epi+ome
epItome
_____________
epit0me
epitome
epitome
epitome
epi+ome
epItome
_____________
epit0me
Labels:
circle,
concrete poetry,
e,
epitome,
Euler,
Euler's formula,
Euler's identity,
mathematics,
Neil Hennessy,
pi
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A Numerical Poem (Fibonacci)
Consider the following poem involving the Fibonacci numbers:
1/89 = .0 +
.01 +
.001 +
.0002 +
.00003 +
.000005 +
.0000008 +
.00000013 +
.000000021 +
.0000000034 +
.00000000055 +
.000000000089 +
.0000000000144 +
. ...
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