Friday, March 15, 2024

Discovery Tool -- Following a Pattern

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     When I pick up a pen to write on a particular subject, often it is useful me to try to follow a pattern for rhymes or syllable-counts -...
Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Celebrate Pi

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     Soon it will be Pi-Day (3.14) and this year I again call your attention to a poem by one of my long-time favorite poets -- the poem &qu...
1 comment:
Thursday, March 7, 2024

Celebrating Women who write Mathy Poems

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       Now in March -- in Women's History Month -- many writers are taking a bit of extra time to explore the history and achievements ...
Monday, March 4, 2024

Multiple Meanings -- in Poetry, Math, and Jokes

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     One of the challenging AND enriching qualities of both mathematics and poetry is the multiplicity of meanings that particular expressio...
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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

A poem-title that drew me in -- "Calculus I, II, III"

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      A poetry event that I often enjoy is the posting by the Academy of American Poets of a poem-a-day -- today's poem is found here  ...
Friday, February 23, 2024

Shaping poems with Pascal's Triangle

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      One of my favorite websites to visit is " Poetry and Mathematics " -- a blog from poet Marian Christie .  Today I focus on h...
Monday, February 19, 2024

Mathematician, Poet -- Blind to the worth of Women

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     As we study mathematics and learn of outstanding mathematicians, many of us do not also learn which of those mathematicians also were p...
Thursday, February 15, 2024

Poems of Math -- from a teacher and his students

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      Occasionally I Google the pair "mathematics, poetry" to see what a web search can find for me.  Many of the sites found thi...
Monday, February 12, 2024

Math Poems for Students of All Ages

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      In my recent use of Google -- in search of mathy poems -- I came across this website:   38 Math Poems for Students in All Grade Levels...
Thursday, February 8, 2024

Rules that someone made up -- Is that MATH?

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      As frequent readers of this blog know, I am indebted to many people for their contributions of poems -- their own and links to others....
Monday, February 5, 2024

Going to Mars -- film profile of poet Nikki Giovanni

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      Poet Nikki Giovanni is someone I much admire -- for her poetry and for her activism -- and recently I had had a chance to see the doc...
Friday, February 2, 2024

Distance and Time

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          Poetry 180 was a project initiated back in 2002 by the poet laureate Billy Collins -- a project with the goal of providing for s...
Monday, January 29, 2024

Women in Math -- Don't Hide Them!!

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     In the days and years since my schooling, the numbers of math-women have increased and their public recognition also has increased.  Bu...
Thursday, January 25, 2024

Mathematical Wellness

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      As I read this poem, I was reminded of attitudes toward mathematics: by  poet Sunil Singh , from  Words  
Friday, January 19, 2024

Films about math and math-people

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     One of my recent finds has been an article that offers a list of 20 films about math, mathematicians, and math-geniuses .  Eagerly, I o...
Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Poetry at the Joint Mathematics Meetings

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        During January 4-7, 2024, mathematics meetings were held in San Francisco, CA.  Although unable to attend, I have spent some time br...
Friday, January 12, 2024

A Mathy-Poetic Quote

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     Recently my thoughts have turned often to these mathy-poetic words by Danish-American comedian-musician Victor Borge (1909-2000): Laugh...
Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Thinking with my fingers . . .

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Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) This quote from science fiction writer Isaac Asimov  is fou...
Saturday, January 6, 2024

Many accessible MATHY POEMS -- from BRIDGES

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      One of the wonderful supporters of connections between mathematics and the arts has been BRIDGES , a conference-gathering that was in...
Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Student Contests -- Essays, Poems -- Due by Feb. 1

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 STUDENTS – Middle School, High School, College       Write a Mathy POEM                 OR       Interview a Math-Woman, write an ESSAY    ...
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:/...