Thursday, October 31, 2013

On poetry and geometric truth . . .

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          On poetry and geometric truth           And their high privilege of lasting life,           From all internal injury exempt,  ...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

From order to chaos -- a sonnet

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Fractals    by Diana Der-Hovanessian                               Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare                                ...
2 comments:
Saturday, October 26, 2013

Two cultures

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The opening poem of Uneasy Relations by mathematician-poet Michael Bartholomew-Biggs is concerned with similarities and differences between...
Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Two-line poems -- Landays -- from Afghanistan

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Celebrate Activist Poetry -- At Nov. 1 Event BE THERE on November 1, 2013 at the Goethe-Intitut in Washington DC when poet and journal...
Monday, October 21, 2013

Topology for poets

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     The title of this posting ("Topology for Poets") comes from Maryland Poet Amy Eisner 's poem "Lure" (offered be...
Friday, October 18, 2013

Mathematics of love . . .

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"Mathematics of Love" is the title poem of a collection by John Edwin Cohen (1941-2012), published in 2011 by Anaphora Literary P...
Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Circle Power

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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle          by Black Elk (1863-1950)  (translated from Sioux) Everything the P...
Monday, October 14, 2013

"My Proteins"

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The mysteries of science are sometimes explored in poems and, in this vein, I was delighted to find "My Proteins" by Jane Hirshfie...
Friday, October 11, 2013

Mathews retells Dowland (with permutations)

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 In my post for 6 September 2013 I presented Oulipian Harry Mathews ' poem "Multiple Choice" -- a poem whose alternative stor...
Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Split This Rock 2014

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     Plan now to attend the 4th national biennial Split This Rock Poetry Festiva l: Poems of Provocation & Witness in Washington, DC, Ma...
Sunday, October 6, 2013

Measuring the World . . .

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     Yesterday afternoon, at the Goethe Institut in Washington DC , I saw a wonderful film, " Measuring the World ." Based on a po...
Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Sonnet -- To Science

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Edgar Allan Poe's "Sonnet -- To Science" was the "Poem-A-Day" selection of poets.org last week on September 29.  Th...
Monday, September 30, 2013

Splendid Wake project

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On Wednesday, September 25, more than one hundred poets met at the George Washington University Gelman Library's Special Collection Conf...
Thursday, September 26, 2013

Averaging . . . geometry of the center

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Perhaps partly due to his experience as an Air Force pilot during World War II,  Harold Nemerov (1920 - 1991) uses geometry with deft precis...
Monday, September 23, 2013

A poet re-envisions space

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University of Pennsylvania professor Robert Ghrist , in his September 19 lecture ("Putting Topology to Work") at the MAA's Ca...
1 comment:
Thursday, September 19, 2013

BRIDGES poems, from 17 poets

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Due to the hard work of mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz , poetry has been an important part of recent BRIDGES-Math-Art Conferences . And, unde...
Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Perfect circle, Haiku

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          Perfect circle round                the moon           In the center of the sky by Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), from Book of Ha...
Sunday, September 15, 2013

Consider Pascal

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     Mathematician Blaise Pascal (France, 1623-1662) is known for his explorations with computing machines, for his ideas concerning proba...
Thursday, September 12, 2013

Kaplansky sings Kaplansky (and Pi)

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     I first knew of mathematician Irving Kaplansky (1917-2006) through his monograph, Infinite Abelian Groups -- it was one of my texts f...
Monday, September 9, 2013

Nature poems -- at Stillwater

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     As noted in my 5 August posting , the Stillwater poetry festival (organized by Kevin Clark ) was scheduled for last Saturday, September...
Friday, September 6, 2013

Mathematical structure and Multiple choice

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     A sonnet repeats the iambic rhythm of the heart beat (da-DUM, da-DUM, . . .) with a line length corresponding to a typical breath (5 he...
2 comments:
Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Poetry-with-math in Baltimore -- 17 Jan 2014

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At the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore (January 15-18, 2014), the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (under the leadership of edito...
Saturday, August 31, 2013

A square-root of dead weight . . .

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     A poet  I love ( Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013 , 1995 Nobelist ) has died. The NYTimes obituary for Heaney quotes one of my favorites of hi...
Thursday, August 29, 2013

Poetry in a math text

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     In the 1980s, all students at Bloomsburg University were required to take at least one mathematics course and I worked with colleagues...
Monday, August 26, 2013

Celebrating a math-woman

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I am continually searching for poems that feature past and current math-women. When you find one (or create one) I will be glad to have yo...
Thursday, August 22, 2013

Out of 100 -- in the Klondike Gold Rush

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Adding to my recent post on 19 August I note that OEDILF is seeking submissions.     Join the project :  submit limerick definitions of...
Monday, August 19, 2013

OEDILF - the Limerick Dictionary

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     At this site   Editor-in-Chief Chris Strolin is coordinating development of OEDILF : The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form...
Friday, August 16, 2013

Pushkin inspires Seth -- novels in verse

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      My enjoyment of novels in verse began to thrive when a friend and I determined to get into Vikram's Seth's The Golden Gate ( ...
Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Emily Dickinson

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     Although I do not consider any of Emily Dickinson's poems "mathematical," I find that she does not shy from using the te...
Saturday, August 10, 2013

Pushkin poetry, Markov chains

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A Markov chain is a mathematical process that can be used to answer questions such as these:           If the current letter I am reading i...
Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Feynman Point poems

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The Feynman Point is a sequence of six 9s that occurs in the decimal expansion of π -- these 9s are found in positions 762 - 767 following t...
Monday, August 5, 2013

Poetry on Back Roads -- Stillwater Festival

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     On Saturday, September 7, a poetry festival will happen in Stillwater, PA (a small town not far from Bloomsburg where I lived and profe...
Friday, August 2, 2013

Nursery Rhyme Mathematics

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During the last week of July I was in California, vacationing with family (including six of my grandchildren).  Most of these kids have grow...
Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Number personalities

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In his collection,  Zero , Scottish poet Brian McCabe raises questions about numerical classifications.  He begins "The Fifth Season&q...
Friday, July 26, 2013

Another 17-word Haiku

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If a poet uses only one-syllable words, the resulting Haiku is a bit longer than usual -- as in this Haiku in which the word lengths also fo...
Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A poem with two numbers

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My friend Carol Ann Heckman has studied with Denise Levertov and feeds voraciously on her work.  For many years I have loved Levertov'...
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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Poets at BRIDGES

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These seven poets will be reading math-related poems at the upcoming (July 27-31) BRIDGES Conference in Enschede, the Netherlands ; biograph...
3 comments:
Thursday, July 18, 2013

BRIDGES 2013 -- Math-Art in the Netherlands

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Since 1998, Summer BRIDGES Conferences have been held -- enthusiastic gatherings where theater and visual art and music and poetry and math...
Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Haiku to Mars -- select and vote

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     Each of us may now (July 15 - 29) vote for one of the thousands of Haiku submitted to NASA's "Haiku for Mars" contest. T...
Thursday, July 11, 2013

Counting on numbers

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Alan Michael Parker 's anthologized and highly regarded poem "Family Math" begins in the style of a typical word-problem from...
Monday, July 8, 2013

Pool -- a game of geometry?

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     Years ago I taught  a "liberal arts mathematics" course -- and for a time we used the text  Mathematics, a Human Endeavor: A ...
Friday, July 5, 2013

Grandma got STEM

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     There are so many fine websites to visit and blogs to read that it is hard to get to them all. One of my recent pleasures has been Gran...
Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Calculus (and calyculus)

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For lots of years I have subscribed to A.Word.A.Day , founded by Anu Garg , and on 3 June 2013  -- offered in the category of "words th...
Sunday, June 30, 2013

Miroslav Holub -- "what use is it?"

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     In earlier postings I have expressed my admiration for the Czech poet Miroslav Holub (1923-1998)  -- a research scientist who also wro...
Thursday, June 27, 2013

17-word Haiku

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     On 25 May 2013 this blog contained an announcement of NASA's Haiku-to-Mars contest.  The contest rules are here -- and July 1 is ...
1 comment:
Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Symmetric squares

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Sometimes we find meaning among disparate objects when they are juxtaposed. Here are nine words I have chosen because of the ways they are s...
Saturday, June 22, 2013

Why is SHE less known? . . .

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Sometimes matching words to a syllable-count helps to bring focus to my musings.  Here are two stanzas for which I used the Fibonacci number...
4 comments:
Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Balancing an Equation

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     I grew up on a farm and spent my middle life in a small town and now live in a city.  A sort of immigrant.  A farm girl who became a p...
Sunday, June 16, 2013

What is not possible?

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     It is impossible for a number to be greater than 2 if it is not greater than 1.  It is impossible to find a rational number whose squar...
Thursday, June 13, 2013

Count your things

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     In the development of human culture, mathematics began with counting.  And so it also begins with each child as she/he grows.      Som...
Monday, June 10, 2013

A sestina from Rudyard Kipling

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My father died many years ago, when I was still a young girl, and I have few possessions that were once his.  One is The First Jungle Book ,...
Friday, June 7, 2013

A Man-Made Universe and "found" poems

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 Some poems are found rather than crafted. It's such fun -- can happen to anyone --  to be reading along and find a poem.       T...
Tuesday, June 4, 2013

A poem from an airline call center

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     Poet Laura LeHew offers us " The New Math "-- a "found" poem that features conversations and calculations from cal...
Sunday, June 2, 2013

Geometry of distance

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     Some of the poems herein arrive as gifts from friends.  Today's poem came via e-mail from Susan (a Californian whom I have gotten t...
Thursday, May 30, 2013

Haiku with a number or two

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     Recently Irish poet and New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon read at the Folger Shakespeare Library -- and, sadly, I missed the eve...
Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Related rates -- in fiction and poetry

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     During the Memorial Day weekend I had the opportunity to read Black Rice (WSI, 2013), a novella by Burmese-American poet, artist, acti...
2 comments:
Saturday, May 25, 2013

Haiku to Mars

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  Send a Haiku to Mars on the MAVEN! NASA has a contest (deadline July 1)   to select three Haiku to send to Mars:   NASA is offering...
Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Shifting patterns

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This poem by California poet and scientist Lucille Lang Day weaves a shifting display of images -- the flight patterns of birds made vivid ...
1 comment:
Saturday, May 18, 2013

Mathematics and Mexican Food

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Recently Rattle posted a wonderful mathy poem by Diana Rosen entitled "Mathematics and Molé." Here's the first stanza:    ...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The Icosasphere

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Marianne Moore (1887-1972) has fun with the sounds of words -- including a number of math terms -- in her playful poem that celebrates inven...
Friday, May 10, 2013

Sustainability and Collapse

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     Last Tuesday evening mathematician Charles Hadlock offered an excellent lecture -- "Sustainability and Collapse" --  at the ...
Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Four -- square, colors, theorem, poem

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During my doctoral study days at the University of Oklahoma I knew several mathematicians who were working on graph theory problems -- and a...
Friday, May 3, 2013

Enough for everyone -- Russell Libby

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Are you looking for a poem on a particular math topic?  One search strategy is to go to the Poetry Foundation website (another is to click ...
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Growing lines . . .

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  Maximizing Meaning (maybe) How many syllables will fit on this single line segment? ______________________________________________...
Saturday, April 27, 2013

Zero Power

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To neutralize the differing effects of any non-zero numbers -- to wipe out vast differences between numbers -- we may raise each of them to ...
Thursday, April 25, 2013

Geometry of a hawk's flight

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One of the poets featured in the current Poetic Likeness Exhibit -- featuring photographs and paintings and sculptures of poets along with...