Saturday, December 30, 2023

The true spirit of delight . . .

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As the year ends, remembering an important truth . . .  The true spirit of delight, the exultation, the sense of being more than man, which ...
Wednesday, December 27, 2023

A Christmas-tree poem

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As I enjoy the brightness that Christmas tree lights bring to a grey day, I am reminded of the following poem by Brian Bilston , found on T...
Thursday, December 21, 2023

Counting on Christmas . . .

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      One of my favorite memories of Christmas when I was a child involves recitation -- with family or classmates -- of this holiday rhyme,...
Monday, December 18, 2023

Explore a new idea by writing a poem . . .

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      Often I try to unravel the intricacies of a new idea by writing -- using communication with my fingers as steps toward understanding. ...
Monday, December 11, 2023

Stories of Women and Girls in Science

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The website for Agnes Scott College has a wonderful collection of biographies of math women   -- and today I focus particularly on the stor...
Friday, December 8, 2023

A Must-Read Journal -- Humanistic Mathematics

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    One of the very special online resources for connections between mathematics and poetry (and also other art forms) is the Journal of Hum...
Monday, December 4, 2023

Should I take notes?

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One of the things about my learning process that I was not fully aware of during many of my school years was the role that my fingers play...
Friday, December 1, 2023

The First Thing . . .

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Found in a posting on November 26 on Twitter  the following thoughtful lines -- featuring counting -- by poet and editor Dr. Maya C. Popa ,
Monday, November 27, 2023

A Proof in a Poem . . .

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     I was led to this information by a recent (11/23/23) posting by @OxUniMaths on  š¯•¸ (at https://twitter.com/home )      Mathematicians G...
Thursday, November 16, 2023

Write about a MATH-WOMAN -- and WIN!

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     Years ago -- when I was the only woman in the Bloomsburg University mathematics department --  I wrote a poem, " My Dance is Mathe...
Monday, November 13, 2023

ADDING -- a List Poem

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      Via an X (Twitter) posting by poet and blogger Marian Christie (@marian_v_o), I learned about a blog by writer Mike Ferguson entitled...
Thursday, November 9, 2023

A Mathy-Poetic Trajectory

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       Carol Dorf is a retired math teacher and poet -- and   at  New Verse News   I have discovered one of her recent mathy poems, "TR...
Monday, November 6, 2023

Take a Tour -- of Mathy Poems

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        Recently I have discovered (at the website of the American Mathematical Society, AMS) a blog posting that features my blog.  Entitle...
Thursday, November 2, 2023

Upcoming AMS Math-Poetry Contest

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  Middle School Students High School Students College Students Share YOUR POEMS via the 2024 Math-Poetry Contest sponsored by the American M...
Thursday, October 26, 2023

The Thirst to Know HOW MANY?

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    One of the important math-poetry projects that I have been involved in is Strange Attractors:  Poems of Love and Mathematics , a poetry ...
Monday, October 23, 2023

Zero Man of India

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     An interesting story that Google led me to is told in this article about "Zero Man of India"   --  the article tells of  Shah...
Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Remembering Louise Gluck

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        Poet-Laureate of th e United States (2003-2004), winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature,  Louise GlĆ¼ck  died recently.   (10/1...
Sunday, October 15, 2023

An infinite design -- in a poem

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Like a circle, the "lazy 8" or infinity symbol -- shown below --never ends. Recently it was a delight to me to find -- here in the...
Monday, October 9, 2023

Celebrate Ada Lovelace -- and all women in STEM

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     The second Tuesday in October -- this year, Tuesday, October 10 -- is Ada Lovelace Day..  Details of the celebration planned by The Roy...

Indigenous Peoples Day

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      Today (October 9, 2023) is Indigenous Peoples Day -- and I call attention to a thought-provoking activist poem by Linda Hogan , a mem...
Thursday, October 5, 2023

Sunflower Swirls

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     From Sharon Jone s at Connell Co-op College  in Manchester, UK, I have learned about National Poetry Day  -- an event organised by Forw...
Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Celebrating a WINNING Woman!

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     The International Congress of Mathematicians meets every four years (next in 2026) and, at these meetings, awards the Fields Medal --...
Saturday, September 30, 2023

Geometry in Poetry

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      Poet Marian Christie 's blog, Poetry and Mathematics -- found at https://marianchristiepoetry.net/ -- is a website I much enjoy ...
Monday, September 25, 2023

Poetry on the Side . . .

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     My friend Gregory Coxson (engineering professor at the US Naval Academy ) is an explorer of new ideas and I enjoy his frequent emails t...
Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Chat GPT writes about Emmy Noether

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        Learning about AI and exploring its possibilities has been an interesting recent activity for me.  One of my own favorite math-relat...
Friday, September 15, 2023

Attitudes toward Mathematics

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     A wonderful place to visit is PLANET INFINITY -- a website maintained by Rashmi Kathuria, math teacher from Delhi, India.  Exploring ...
Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Poetry of Science

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     One of the interesting regular online postings is a new science poem EVERY FRIDAY -- offered by Sam Illingworth via an email subscript...
Friday, September 8, 2023

Is reading POETRY like reading MATHEMATICS?

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Back in June I found an interesting article online by USAToday Entertainment Editor Pamela Avila   that raises questions about how to read p...
Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Steam Powered Poetry

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        Some of us -- perhaps because of the structure of our minds, perhaps because of our education -- focus strongly on a few key ideas. ...
Wednesday, August 30, 2023

A Nine-Sided Diamond

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     One of my much-appreciated math-poetry connections is with   Scott W. Williams , a   Professor of Mathematics at SUNY Buffalo  and auth...
Monday, August 28, 2023

Hunger -- portrayed in poetry and numbers

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       Since 2003,   SPLIT THIS ROCK  has been an activist poetry organization   that protests war and injustice.   Besides readings and con...
Wednesday, August 23, 2023

MAA Math Values Blog values poetry!

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     I am a long-time member of the Mathematical Association of America ( MAA ) -- an organization (with administrative offices in Washingt...
Monday, August 21, 2023

Shaping a Poem with Fibonacci numbers

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      One of my favorite websites to visit is this varied and thoughtful " Poetry and Mathematics "  collection of postings by Mar...
Thursday, August 17, 2023

A Template for Student Math Poems

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       Earlier this month,  mathematician, songwriter, and poet Larry Lesser  posted a link on Facebook to an article (found here at " ...
Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Lost Women of Science

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     One of the fascinating websites that I have found recently " Lost Women of Science " -- a podcast series available at https:/...
Thursday, August 10, 2023

Math Biographies at the University of St. Andrews

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     One of the very informative and math-related Twitter postings that I follow is  @StA_Maths_Stats  --which features postings from the Sc...
Monday, August 7, 2023

Life described by counting -- "My Math"

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       One of my art-and-poetry friends,   Kyi May Kaung  alerted me to the   online journal,  Glass   -- and I had lots of fun   browsing i...
Thursday, August 3, 2023

Creative, Mathy, Poetic -- Mathematickles

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        The   website of author and screenwriter Betsy Franco   contains a great variety of literary links (including   this link to this in...
Monday, July 31, 2023

The geometry of pleasure . . . .

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     My late-July days have been wonderfully busy with family activities -- time with my children and grandchildren (and not much time for t...
Thursday, July 20, 2023

Winning Math-Communication with Haiku

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     Each spring at MoMath ( The National Museum of Mathematics in New York City) a contest is held -- for the Stephen Strogatz Prize for M...
Monday, July 17, 2023

Remembering Amy Uyematsu . . .

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     This is a time of sadness in the math-poetry community as we  mourn the loss of poet and retired mathematics teacher, Amy Uyematsu (194...
Thursday, July 13, 2023

A LIMERICK defining "FACTOR"

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      As a follow-up to my recent posting about OEDILF ( Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form ) , I can't resist posting my l...
Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Mathy Limericks . . .

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     One of the fun-to-visit poetry resources on the internet is the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form ,  a website resource th...
Thursday, July 6, 2023

A Pioneering Woman

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      Born in Washington DC in 1924, Evelyn Boyd Granville graduated from Smith College in 1945 and in 1949 became the second African-Americ...
Sunday, July 2, 2023

Math Class -- Express POINT OF VIEW with a POEM

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        Often students in a math class feel hesitant about expressing their point of view about the subject -- and these attitudes may emerg...
Monday, June 26, 2023

TRITINA -- a tiny SESTINA

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     In several previous postings ( collected at this link ) this blog has considered the poetry form called a sestina :     a sestina has 3...
Monday, June 19, 2023

BRIDGES Math-Poetry in Halifax -- July 27-31, 2023

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     BRIDGES, an annual conference that celebrates connections between mathematics and the arts, will be held this year in Halifax Nova Scot...
Wednesday, June 14, 2023

HELLO, Numbers

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     As a child, I learned to love numbers via counting rhymes ( of which many are found at this Lit2Go website );  -- often I reinforced m...
Monday, June 12, 2023

Syllable Squares

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         Poetry and        Mathematics        are languages        that can aid us                   to think                   new thoughts.
Thursday, June 8, 2023

Inventing Zero

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     A Pennsylvania friend who is now in Oklahoma, Sharon Solloway -- whom I got to know when we were both faculty members at Bloomsburg Un...
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Monday, June 5, 2023

Number Patterns in Nature

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     Naval Academy engineering professor and math-poetry fan Gregory Coxson  has recently introduced me to poetry by Mattie Quesenberry Smit...
Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Choosing the GEOMETRIC SHAPE of a poem

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      Structural constraints often govern the patterns we find in poetry -- well-known in poetic history are rhythm-and-rhyme patterns inclu...
Thursday, May 25, 2023

EDGES -- as well as VERTICES -- are IMPORTANT!

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G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) was a prominent English mathematician , well-known to mathematicians for his achievements in analysis and number the...
Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Stimulate Math Class Discussion with Poems

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     Sometimes teachers want to understand more about their students' attitudes and concerns about learning a particular subject.  Often...
Friday, May 19, 2023

Measuring Infinity

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      One of my recent excitements has been to learn about a current exhibit at New York's Guggenheim Museum , " Gego:  Measuring I...
Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Mathematician of the Day

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     On this date, May 16, in the year 1718, the talented  Maria Agnesi was born.  A great source of historical information about mathemati...