Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics

Mathematical language can heighten the imagery of a poem; mathematical structure can deepen its effect. Feast here on an international menu of poems made rich by mathematical ingredients . . . . . . . gathered by JoAnne Growney. To receive email notifications of new postings, contact JoAnne at joannegrowney@gmail.com.

Monday, June 29, 2020

Considering opposites . . . and finding union . . .

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     The categorization of different points of view as opposites can disappear as a unified system embraces both of them.  In mathematics, t...
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Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Math-poetry in The Mathematical Intelligencer

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     In a recent e-mail, this message:  " The Mathematical Intelligencer . Vol. 42 No. 2 is now available online."   Most Intelli...
Monday, June 22, 2020

Counting on ... and on ... BLACK LIVES MATTER!

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     In these days of learning to recognize the racism and racial injustice that has gone on in the United States for SO LONG I am reminded ...
Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Principles of Accounting -- in verse!

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      Quarantining has turned poetry readings into Zoom events -- and that brought Pennsylvania poet Barbara Crooker to my computer a coupl...
Monday, June 15, 2020

Everybody counts -- Axioms for diversity

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Found here in the 2016 Notices of the American Mathematical Society -- these words that are mathematical, poetic AND important!  
Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Unconscious(?) bias

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       Wherever she goes        there is mathematics --        but THEY don't call        her a mathematician . . .               ...
Monday, June 8, 2020

Learning from Copernicus

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     These days are challenging ones -- HOW can we live safely?  How can we live morally? How can we learn that none of us is the center of ...
Friday, June 5, 2020

Does nothing exist?

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      From Montreal mathematician, poet, and artist Alex Ionut , this highly imaginative poem, "The Empty Set Exists."  -- a poem ...
Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Women in Theory -- Math to Give

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     The June, 2020 Conference of Women in Theory (of Computer Science) has been postponed to next year.  But these energetic mathy women g...
Sunday, May 31, 2020

Which permutation of lines yields the best poem?

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     A fascinating article about poet Jericho Brown (by Allison Glock in Garden and Gun magazine ) reminded me of the vital role of line-...
Wednesday, May 27, 2020

THE STORY OF MATHEMATICS -- in a poem

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     A mathy poem that I have learned about from  Carol Dorf (poet and retired math teacher and  poetry editor at talkingwriting.com ) is ...
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Monday, May 25, 2020

Counting . . . and more counting . . .

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     Poet and retired math teacher and poetry editor ( talkingwriting.com ) Carol Dorf  has been staying connected during the covid-19 pande...
Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Links to mathy poems . . .

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     The Annual Bridges Math-Arts Conference will not be meeting this year but mathematician Sarah Glaz has arranged for lots of math-poeti...
Monday, May 18, 2020

Doubling and redoubling . ..

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     The mathematics of repeated doubling and concerns about COVID-19 have led Virginia dentist and poet Eric Forsbergh to write "A Fa...
Friday, May 15, 2020

A rhyme about a prime

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     Tomorrow, May 16, is the birthday of Pafnuty Chebyshev (1821-1894), who was one of the founders of Russian mathematics and the first t...
Wednesday, May 13, 2020

What would I do without NUMBERS?

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     Sometimes familiar things that are very important are taken for granted.  Many of us do that with numbers . . . California poet and ar...
Monday, May 11, 2020

Geometry of a Shadow

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     This morning while exercising I listened to an old CD that had been stored with materials I used when involved with the The Children...
Thursday, May 7, 2020

Squaring the circle . . . or not . . .

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     Start with a CIRCLE -- is it possible, using only a straightedge and compass, to construct a SQUARE with the same area as the starting ...
Monday, May 4, 2020

Remembering Eavan Boland, Grace Hopper

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     Irish poet Eavan Boland (1944-2020) died last week and news of her death has caused me to look back and remember.  In this year in wh...
Thursday, April 30, 2020

Poetry and Math -- online audio -- 2020 census, etc

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     Today ( with poems in our pockets ) we celebrate the final day of National Poetry Month and National Mathematics and Statistics Awaren...
Monday, April 27, 2020

National Poem-in-your-Pocket Day -- April 30, 2020

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     The following stanza by  award-winning children's author,  Beatrice Schenk de Regniers , (1914-2000), has led to an annual celebrat...
Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Considering my Point of View

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       Today, on Earth Day, I am listening to news of the COVID-19 pandemic and wondering how to interpret what I hear . ..   "Do y...
Monday, April 20, 2020

The Geometry of Love

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     A journal that I love to browse is the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics -- and recent quarantining has been a bit like my youthful ex...
Friday, April 17, 2020

April 22 is EARTH DAY -- Remember the TREES

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Can planting billions of trees save our planet? Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles,  reducing heat,  and abs...
Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Inclusion-Exclusion -- the power of the CIRCLE!

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On my mind today, this poem by U.S. poet Edwin Markham (1852-1940):           Outwitted      by Edwin Markham           He drew a cir...
Monday, April 13, 2020

Haiku Poetry Day -- coming soon!

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     My internet explorations find celebrations of Haiku Poetry Day described for both April 17 and April 18    -- my own recommendation is...
Thursday, April 9, 2020

Celebrate the lives of MATH-WOMEN via POEMS!

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     This week I have learned that a lovely presentation of my poem, "With Reason  A Portrait of Sophia Kovalevsky," has been pub...
Monday, April 6, 2020

Uncertainty persists . . .

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      In these days of coronavirus uncertainty and risk, my thoughts are drawn again and again to this couplet: The Secret Sits     by Ro...
Friday, April 3, 2020

The Woman Who Bested the Men at Math

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     An American Mathematical Society Page-a-Day Mathematics calendar , compiled by mathematician and free-lance writer Evelyn Lamb , has le...
Thursday, April 2, 2020

Math Poettary -- continuous, but not differentiable

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     A few weeks ago I was introduced via email to Gauarav Bhatnagar , a mathematician now at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, Indi...
Tuesday, March 31, 2020

She should have been on the Math Team

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     National Poetry Month starts tomorrow and I hope that poetry can be a thoughtful focus for you in this time of crisis and confinement d...
Monday, March 30, 2020

Mathematics...underlies everything...said the poet

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     I first met scientist-poet Mary Peelen via an 2019 interview of her by mathematician-poet Gizem Karaali in The Adroit Journal .  The c...
Thursday, March 26, 2020

SUNSET poem -- guided by a Fano diagram

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GEOMETRY IN POETRY Warning :  even if you are not a mathy person, you will like the poem offered below!      When a writer picks up her ...
Monday, March 23, 2020

Celebrating 10 Years of Math-Poetry Blogging

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     This blog's first posting, "Poetry of Logical Ideas" -- found here , occurred ten years ago today on March 23, 2010.    T...
Thursday, March 19, 2020

Honor World Poetry Day on 3/21 with a Math Poem

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On March 21 each year, UNESCO World Poetry Day !  Browsing down through this blog will lead you to lots of poems to read to celebrate that...
Tuesday, March 17, 2020

What does this math-poetry blog contain?

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An alphabetical list of TOPICS and NAMES of all of the poets and mathematicians cited in this blog is available here .
Monday, March 16, 2020

Keeping Track -- poetry with numbers

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      The very fine poetry of Jane Hirshfield has been featured in several earlier blog postings .  And below, again -- with some lines fro...
Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Observe Pi-Day by writing in Pilish

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      Many poets use constraints to shape their writing but few are as constrained as mathematician Mike Keith who has written many works i...
Monday, March 9, 2020

"Numbers and Faces" and 23 more math poems

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     "Numbers and Faces" is the title of a poem by W. H. Auden -- and I also have used it as the title of a collection of poems t...
Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Learn of MATH WOMEN in POEMS!

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 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WOMAN Sunday, March 8, 2020       Often it is difficult to find time for history in mathematics courses.  One ...
Monday, March 2, 2020

New math poems -- recently found online

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     A couple of days ago an email brought me the Table of Contents of the latest issue (Vol. 42, Issue 1) of  The Mathematical Intelligenc...
Wednesday, February 26, 2020

A MATH WOMAN acrostic poem

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Can one describe a MATH WOMAN in 9 words? and, what if those words' first letters must spell MATH WOMAN? Try it -- it's fun!  ...
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Monday, February 24, 2020

Counting syllables, considering snowflakes

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     From Larry Lesser , a professor at The University of Texas at El Paso (a researcher in math education) and a poet and songwriter and fr...
Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Which order is best -- or should I try them all?

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This posting celebrates a new poetry collection --  Ringing the Changes by Stephanie Strickland   ( Counterpath , 2020). This new c...
Monday, February 17, 2020

Those trains in word problems -- who rides them?

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    A Problem in a Math Book     by Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)      I remember a problem in a math book      about a train that leaves fr...
Tuesday, February 11, 2020

"Binary Heart" -- linking love and mathematics

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      From the xkcd webcomic by Randall Munroe -- and also shown on the cover of Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics , we ha...
Sunday, February 9, 2020

Valentine's Day -- a time for Love and Mathematics

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     Perhaps you are looking for a mathy Valentine ,  or a Valentine for a mathy person . . . or both.   This link leads to the resu...
Thursday, February 6, 2020

Welcome DIVERSITY in mathematics

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     As February on the calendar brings BLACK HISTORY month and March brings WOMEN'S HISTORY month, I invite you to explore the contribu...
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Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Another prize-winning poem

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     It was not until after my posting yesterday that I got permission from the third of the winners in the AMS 2020 student poetry contest...
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JoAnne Growney
I enjoy finding connections between different sorts of things . ..
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