Last Thursday evening I was honored to read in Takoma Park's Third Thursday poetry series -- along with poets Judy Neri and Kathleen O'Toole -- and my reading focused on poems of my times in Alaska. The brilliant geometry of our 49th state affected me strongly and "Angles of Light" became the title poem for a chapbook I published with Finishing Line Press in 2009. Here is section 3 (of 7) from that poem.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Excitement of Proving a Theorem
Wow! From first sighting, I have loved this description:
I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
These lines from "Geometry" by Rita Dove express -- as well as any string of twenty-four words I can think of -- the excitement experienced from proving a theorem.
I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
These lines from "Geometry" by Rita Dove express -- as well as any string of twenty-four words I can think of -- the excitement experienced from proving a theorem.
Labels:
Black History Month,
geometry,
mathematics,
Poet Laureate,
poetry,
proof,
Rita Dove,
theorem
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Wartime recurrence
In mathematics, it is not unusual to define an entity using a recurrence relation.
For example, in defining powers of a positive integer:
The 2nd power of 7 may be defined as 7 x 71 ;
the 3rd power of 7 may be defined as 7 times 72,
and the 4th power is 7 times 73,
and, in general, for any positive integer n, 7n+1 = 7 x 7n.
Several weeks ago I attended a reading of fine poetry here in Silver Spring at the Nora School -- a reading that featured DC-area poets Judith Bowles, Luther Jett, and David McAleavey. I was delighted to hear in "Recessional" -- one of the poems presented that evening by Jett -- the mathematical pattern of recurrence, building stepwise with a potentially infinite number of steps (as with the powers of 7, above) into a powerful poem. I include it below:
For example, in defining powers of a positive integer:
The 2nd power of 7 may be defined as 7 x 71 ;
the 3rd power of 7 may be defined as 7 times 72,
and the 4th power is 7 times 73,
and, in general, for any positive integer n, 7n+1 = 7 x 7n.
Several weeks ago I attended a reading of fine poetry here in Silver Spring at the Nora School -- a reading that featured DC-area poets Judith Bowles, Luther Jett, and David McAleavey. I was delighted to hear in "Recessional" -- one of the poems presented that evening by Jett -- the mathematical pattern of recurrence, building stepwise with a potentially infinite number of steps (as with the powers of 7, above) into a powerful poem. I include it below:
Labels:
Beltway,
Luther Jett,
Nora School,
poetry reading,
recurrence
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Mother Courage -- and speaking of opposites
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a poet, but I have not found mathematics in his poems. Still, I want to note here a fantastic performance of his play, Mother Courage and her Children, starring Kathleen Turner and a talented ensemble at Washington,DC's Arena Stage. Invited by my neighbors, Mitzi and Pati, I joined them yesterday for a riveting performance. Here is a link to "How Fortunate the Man with None," a Brecht poem heartily sung as "Solomon's Song" in the current musical production.
And here, with a nod to the mathematical bent of this blog, is a quote from Brecht's Mother Courage that involves counting; also, it is one of many examples of a strategy that Brecht uses often and well -- encouraging an idea by speaking of its opposite.
And here, with a nod to the mathematical bent of this blog, is a quote from Brecht's Mother Courage that involves counting; also, it is one of many examples of a strategy that Brecht uses often and well -- encouraging an idea by speaking of its opposite.
Labels:
Bertolt Brecht,
counting,
Mother Courage,
opposite,
peace,
poet,
war,
word play
Monday, February 10, 2014
To love, in perfect syllables
While looking for Valentine verse with a math connection, I opened my copy of The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll (Chancellor Press, 1982). And found this one in which Carroll (a pen name for English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodson (1832-1898)) uses the word one twice and the word half twice and has counted sounds so that in each line the number of syllables is either a cube of an integer or is perfect.
Lesson in Latin by Lewis Carroll (May 1888)
Lesson in Latin by Lewis Carroll (May 1888)
Labels:
Charles Lutwidge Dodson,
count,
cube,
half,
Lewis Carroll,
love,
mathematician,
mathematics,
one,
Pablo Neruda,
perfect,
Valentine
Friday, February 7, 2014
Love and Mathematics -- Please be my Valentine!
Poet extraordinaire Maxine Kumin (1925-2014) died yesterday.
Late in 2007, AKPeters released Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics, edited by Sarah Glaz and me. Recently at a Howard County Math Festival I met a young man who browsed my copy of this anthology and found it the perfect Valentine. And so might you. Below I include a sample from the collection -- a love sonnet by Jean de Sponde (1557-1595), translated from the French by David Slavitt.
Several previous postings have offered love poems of mathematics and mathematicians;
these include 9 February 2013, 12 February 2012, 12 February 2011, 10 November 2011,
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Six Million
Sometimes numbers become labels for particular events. When I was growing up, all of us knew 1492 as a label for the discovery of America. And 1941 recognized Pearl Harbor. The following selection from a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) reminds us of the awful importance of 6 million.
While mentioning this poem of witness and remembering, I want also to remind you of the very special Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness, to held in Washington, DC, March 27-30, 2014. (Early-bird registration ends on Valentine's Day, February 14th at midnight.) Hope to see you there.
While mentioning this poem of witness and remembering, I want also to remind you of the very special Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness, to held in Washington, DC, March 27-30, 2014. (Early-bird registration ends on Valentine's Day, February 14th at midnight.) Hope to see you there.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Forecasting snow and poetry
Snowbound
is that other world
in which no schedules sit
and no ambitions flare
to interrupt the bluest sky
and whitest field
and coldest air
is that other world
in which no schedules sit
and no ambitions flare
to interrupt the bluest sky
and whitest field
and coldest air
Friday, January 31, 2014
On shoulders of giants . . .
Washington, DC is a city rich with both poetry and mathematics. Last Tuesday evening I attended a Mathematical Association of America (MAA) lecture by author and math historian William Dunham (whom I knew when he taught for a bunch of years at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College, in Eastern Pennsylvania, not so far from my employer, Bloomsburg University). Dunham spoke of insights gained by many hours reading the correspondence of British mathematician and scientist, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The discoverer of "gravity," and, moreover, both a genius and a disagreeable man. Still, Newton was a man who gave a nod to his predecessors, "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants."
Labels:
David Arns,
fluxions,
gravity,
MAA,
mathematician,
poem,
Principia,
Sir Isaac Newton,
William Dunham
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Little Boxes
It is hard to know what to say.
Pete Seeger died yesterday at age 94.
94 = 2 x 47. 47 is prime.
Here is a link to Pete singing "Little Boxes."
Song lyrics are poems.
Pete Seeger died yesterday at age 94.
94 = 2 x 47. 47 is prime.
Here is a link to Pete singing "Little Boxes."
Song lyrics are poems.
Graffiti Calculus
In my dreams I am an artist -- a cartoonist, perhaps, or a graffiti artist -- so skilled with lines and curves and so clever that my art gives pleasure AND delivers a punch.
And so I am gratefully into the math-art connections provoked by a new book by Mary-Sherman Willis -- aptly titled Graffiti Calculus (CW Books, 2013). I first met Willis in December, at Cafe Muse (where I will read next Monday, Feb 3 with Stephanie Strickland) and it was my pleasure also to hear her read again from that collection at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. These poems by Willis give us, in sixty poetic chapters, the story of a mother seeking her son by following his graffiti tags through the city. Here is a sample, sections 5 and 6:
And so I am gratefully into the math-art connections provoked by a new book by Mary-Sherman Willis -- aptly titled Graffiti Calculus (CW Books, 2013). I first met Willis in December, at Cafe Muse (where I will read next Monday, Feb 3 with Stephanie Strickland) and it was my pleasure also to hear her read again from that collection at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. These poems by Willis give us, in sixty poetic chapters, the story of a mother seeking her son by following his graffiti tags through the city. Here is a sample, sections 5 and 6:
Labels:
calculus,
continuous,
function,
graffiti,
integer,
JMM Poetry Reading,
limit,
Mary-Sherman Willis,
mathematics,
poet
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Mathematics is like . . .
For angling may be said to be so like the mathematics,
that it can never be fully learnt; at least not so fully,
but that there will still be more new experiments left
for the trial of other men that succeed us.
Izaak Walton (1594-1683), The Compleat Angler (1653-1676)
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Extraneous -- and so on
Since my junior high math days, when I first heard the word "extraneous," I have loved the sound of it, the feel of my mouth when I say it, the mystery of how solving an equation can lead to extra solutions. And then learning to check found-solutions to see if they were true solutions -- a process that has been multiply useful to me far afield from mathematics.
My love for this math-word drew me quickly to the title of a poem by Alex Walsh, a high school student from Oberlin, Ohio, who presented her work at the poetry-with-math reading at JMM in Baltimore last Friday. Here are her poems "Convergence" and "The Extraneous Solution" :
My love for this math-word drew me quickly to the title of a poem by Alex Walsh, a high school student from Oberlin, Ohio, who presented her work at the poetry-with-math reading at JMM in Baltimore last Friday. Here are her poems "Convergence" and "The Extraneous Solution" :
Labels:
Alex Walsh,
convergence,
extraneous,
infinite,
JMM Poetry Reading,
math,
mathematician,
permutation,
poetry,
polynomial
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Word problems
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much (a Times book by S. Mullainathan and E. Shafir, released last September) considers not only the facts but the feelings of scarcity and finds similarities between those those with too little time and those with too little money. The authors report, further, that persons experiencing scarcity do not have the luxury of doing well in their studies -- of mathematics or poetry -- because the scarcity demands their first attention.
And . . . this connection between external environment and a student's learning brings me to a poem by Dian Sousa, a poem that gives us some things to think about.
And . . . this connection between external environment and a student's learning brings me to a poem by Dian Sousa, a poem that gives us some things to think about.
Labels:
calculate,
Dian Sousa,
equation,
math,
problem,
scarcity,
word problem
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Poems and primes
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Friday morning, 1-17-2014, looking north from the Baltimore Convention Center |
Labels:
Baltimore,
Ben Orlin,
Douglas Norton,
Euclid,
JMM Poetry Reading,
limerick,
math,
mathematics,
poetry,
primes
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Poetry-with-math, Jan 17, Baltimore
Please join us!
A Reading of Poetry with Mathematics
Friday, January 17, 2014 4:30 - 6:30 PM
Room 308 Baltimore Convention Center
Room 308 Baltimore Convention Center
Sunrise gives
each of us
a shadow.
Labels:
2014,
Baltimore,
Gizem Karaali,
JHM,
JMM Poetry Reading,
mathematics,
poetry
Monday, January 13, 2014
Writing mathy poems - a student activity
On the web-page of mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz I found a link to this file of math-related poems that she prompted students to write when she visited an Arcadia University class session of "Truth and Beauty: A Course in Mathematics and Literature" taught by mathematician-poet Marion Cohen. The writing was prompted by an activity-list developed by mathematician-poet Carol Dorf. Poems by Whitney Boeckel and Olivia Lantz particularly caught my eye and, with their permission, I present them here:
Friday, January 10, 2014
The discipline of mathematics
This poem remembers one of my students.
The Prince of Algebra by JoAnne Growney
Madam Professor,
let me introduce myself.
I'm Albert James,
whom you may know
by my test score
that's lower than my age.
The Prince of Algebra by JoAnne Growney
Madam Professor,
let me introduce myself.
I'm Albert James,
whom you may know
by my test score
that's lower than my age.
Labels:
age,
algebra,
clock,
JoAnne Growney,
mathematics,
professor,
score,
teacher
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Martin Gardner, again
This past weekend a review by Teller (magician of the Penn & Teller team) of an autobiography of Martin Gardner appeared in the NYTimes Book Review. According to Teller, Gardner (1914-2010) wrote the memoir, Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner, at the age of 95 on an old electric typewriter in his single-room assisted-living apartment in Norman, Oklahoma.
Labels:
double acrostic,
magic,
Martin Gardner,
mathematical,
poem,
rhyme,
time,
Tom Hood
Friday, January 3, 2014
Count what counts
When I visited Iceland last month, I looked in the bookstores of Reykjavik for bilingual (Icelandic-English) poetry collections; I found none. I did, however, acquire a copy of The Sayings of the Vikings (Gudrun Publishing, 1992), a translation by Bjorn Jonasson of Hávamál -- "sayings of the high one" -- from the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking era and attributed to Odin. Here are several samples that involve number or measurement:
The Nature of Hospitality
I would be invited
everywhere
if I needn't eat at all.
The Nature of Hospitality
I would be invited
everywhere
if I needn't eat at all.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
2013 (and prior) -- titles, dates of posts
Scroll
down to find dates and titles (with links) of posts in 2013. At the bottom are links to posts through 2012 and 2011 -- and all the way back to March 2010 when this
blog was begun. This link leads to a PDF file that lists searchable topics and names of poets and mathematicians presented herein.
Dec 30 Error Message Haiku
Dec 26 The angel of numbers . . .
Dec 23 Ah, you are a mathematician
Dec 20 Measuring Winter
Dec 30 Error Message Haiku
Dec 26 The angel of numbers . . .
Dec 23 Ah, you are a mathematician
Dec 20 Measuring Winter
Monday, December 30, 2013
Error Message Haiku
Found at Komplexify.com, a variety of (often-amusing) mathematical verses -- including a collection of Error Message Haiku. Approaching a New Year, I have been reflecting on my device-dependencies and considering resolutions about them -- and musing over some of these wistful substitutions for machine messages I dread:
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Labels:
computer,
error message,
haiku,
Komplexify,
memory
Thursday, December 26, 2013
The angel of numbers . . .
This poem by Hanns Cibulka (1920 - 2004) -- translated from the German by Ewald Osers -- is collected in the anthology, Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics, edited by Sarah Glaz and me (A K Peters, 2008).
Mathematics by Hanns Cibulka (trans. Ewald Osers)
And the angel of numbers
is flying
from 1 to 2...
—Rafael Alberti
Mathematics by Hanns Cibulka (trans. Ewald Osers)
And the angel of numbers
is flying
from 1 to 2...
—Rafael Alberti
Monday, December 23, 2013
Ah, you are a mathematician
Thanks to Arturo Sangalli of the Writer's Union of Canada -- and fellow-participant in a recent Banff creativity conference -- who reminded me of this poem. And thanks to Bill Dunham who has spread it widely by including it in The Mathematical Universe (Wiley, 1997). These brief stanzas were written in the early 1990s when many of us kept our financial facts in checkbooks rather than online; still current, however, is the mistaken image of mathematicians as those whose task it is to keep numbers clean and orderly.
Misunderstanding by JoAnne Growney
Ah, you are a mathematician,
they say with admiration
or scorn.
Misunderstanding by JoAnne Growney
Ah, you are a mathematician,
they say with admiration
or scorn.
Labels:
Arturo Sangalli,
balance,
Christmas,
digits,
JoAnne Growney,
mathematical,
mathematician,
numbers,
pi,
William Dunham
Friday, December 20, 2013
Measuring Winter
Thomas Campion (1567-1620) was an English composer, physician, and poet. I found this poem at poetryfoundation.org.
Now Winter Nights Enlarge by Thomas Campion
Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Now Winter Nights Enlarge by Thomas Campion
Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Sieve of Eratosthenes
The Sieve of Eratosthenes by Robin Chapman
He was an ancient Greek
looking for primes,
those whole numbers divisible
only by 1 and themselves,
those new arrivals on the block,
fresh additions to the stock
of indivisibles spilling through
future time (for what is time
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Amounting to Something
From the Fall/Winter 2013 issue of Poet Lore, a poem by David Wagoner about the arithmetic of expectations:
Amounting to Something by David Wagoner
You were supposed to do that
by saving yourself up
like coins in a pig rescued
just in time sometimes
from in front of the candy counter
or the desk in the corridor
Amounting to Something by David Wagoner
You were supposed to do that
by saving yourself up
like coins in a pig rescued
just in time sometimes
from in front of the candy counter
or the desk in the corridor
Labels:
add,
amount,
calculation,
counting,
David Wagoner,
divide,
multiply,
questions,
subtract
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
13 lads of Christmas
In addition to waterfalls and geysers and the Aurora, Iceland has outstanding museums. On the morning of December 10, I visited the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik -- and enjoyed a careful introduction to the history of this fascinating and friendly nation. Something I missed, however, was seeing one of the 13 Yuletide Lads that are an Icelandic tradition and who visit the Museum one-by-one on the 13 days before Christmas, each wearing
traditional costume and trying to pilfer the goodies he
likes best.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Iceland -- poetry, stones
British translator and editor David McDuff blogs at "Nordic Voices in Print" -- a site that he uses as "a way of making some of my translations of Nordic poetry and prose available online." Here is "stones" -- the third of a group of ten poems he has posted by Icelandic poet Sjón. This one involves a few numbers and I present it here as a math-poetry token of the fascinating land I am planning to visit: a five-day Iceland vacation adventure, traveling with my Eastern Village neighbors Priscilla and Glenn.
stones by Sjón (translated by David McDuff)
stones by Sjón (translated by David McDuff)
Labels:
David McDuff,
Iceland,
numbers,
poem,
Sjon,
stones,
translation
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Conversational mathematics
In recent weeks I have been experimenting with poems that use mathematical terminology, wondering whether -- since there are readers who are undaunted by unknown literary references (to Dante's Divine Comedy or Eliot's Prufrock, for example) -- some readers will relish a poem with unexplained mathematical connections. In this vein I have offered "Love" (posted on on November 5) and now give the following poem, "Small Powers of Eleven are Palindromes":
Labels:
Catalan,
cube,
irrational,
JoAnne Growney,
language,
mathematics,
number,
palindrome,
perfect,
poem,
power,
twin primes
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Last year's prediction
This poem by Halifax mathematician and poet, Robert Dawson, appeared in LabLit in December 2012 (just in time to offer gentle mocking of predicted disaster)! Enjoy!
Survivor's Guide to the Baktun-13 Bug by Robert Dawson
As you may know, at this years’ Winter Solstice
the 12-baktun Long Count will overflow.
Survivor's Guide to the Baktun-13 Bug by Robert Dawson
As you may know, at this years’ Winter Solstice
the 12-baktun Long Count will overflow.
Labels:
baktun,
calendar,
count,
mathematics,
overflow,
poetry,
Robert Dawson
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Solving equations . . .
Labels:
Against Infinity,
algebra,
equal,
equations,
Linda Pastan,
math,
poetry,
solving,
Thanksgiving,
unknown,
X,
y
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Algebra cadabra
It was my good fortune to meet Colette Inez back in the early 1990s when she was poet-in-residence at Bucknell University. Then, as now, I was collecting poems-with-mathematics, and I have long loved this poem that weaves figuring into forests.
Forest Children by Colette Inez
We heard swifts feeding in air,
sparrows ruffling dusty feathers,
a tapping on stones, mud, snow, pulp
when rain came down, the hiss of fire.
Counting bird eggs in a dome of twigs,
we heard trees fall and learned
to name them on a page for school.
Forest Children by Colette Inez
We heard swifts feeding in air,
sparrows ruffling dusty feathers,
a tapping on stones, mud, snow, pulp
when rain came down, the hiss of fire.
Counting bird eggs in a dome of twigs,
we heard trees fall and learned
to name them on a page for school.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
A poet (math-daughter) speaks of math's beauty
I met Minnesota poet Roseann Lloyd when we served together on an AWP (Associated Writing Programs) conference panel on translation several years ago. There I was considering, as I so often am, the translation of mathematics into representations that poets understand. Roseann 's father was a mathematics professor and she learned early that "mathematics is its own beauty." And she has permitted me to offer you this poem.
HOW MY DADDY CHANGED WHEN HE GAVE UP TEACHING COLLEGE FOR SELLING INSURANCE by Roseann Lloyd
Once Daddy enthralled his students at SMS --
handsome in his navy blue suit and dusty hands,
chalk clicking out equations lickety-split.
A third-grader, I waited for him every day
in the cool marble hall. Listened to the rhythm
of the chalk on the board. Even then I knew
that pure math is an art equal to music, second
only to poetry in the realm of beauty.
HOW MY DADDY CHANGED WHEN HE GAVE UP TEACHING COLLEGE FOR SELLING INSURANCE by Roseann Lloyd
Once Daddy enthralled his students at SMS --
handsome in his navy blue suit and dusty hands,
chalk clicking out equations lickety-split.
A third-grader, I waited for him every day
in the cool marble hall. Listened to the rhythm
of the chalk on the board. Even then I knew
that pure math is an art equal to music, second
only to poetry in the realm of beauty.
Labels:
beauty,
equation,
math,
mathematics,
poet,
poetry,
prime,
Roseann Lloyd,
translation
Monday, November 18, 2013
Counting responses
At the Poetry Foundation website, poet Audre Lorde (1934-1992) is described thus:
and her creative talent to confronting and addressing
the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Here is a counting poem by this fine, bold poet:
A self-styled "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,"
writer
Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing
the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Here is a counting poem by this fine, bold poet:
Labels:
Audre Lorde,
counting,
injustice,
poem,
questions
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Inequality of Compromise
This past week I attended a wonderfully stimulating BIRS (Banff International Research Station) Conference -- a gathering of creative writers in mathematics and the sciences -- and, as I told colleagues at Banff of early days in my long-term interest in the poetry of mathematics, I recalled the fine collection Against Infinity: An Anthology of Contemporary Mathematical Poetry (Primary Press, 1979), collected and edited by Ernest Robson and Jet Wimp. Today I pulled it from my shelves and again turned its pages. "Compromise" by Missouri mathematician Charles S. Allen caught my eye. Here it is:
Labels:
Against Infinity,
anthology,
Charles Allen,
compromise,
inequality,
mathematics,
poetry
Monday, November 11, 2013
The minute in infinity
From Treatise on Infinite Series by Jacob Bernoulli
Even as the finite encloses an infinite series
And in the unlimited limits appear,
So the soul of immensity dwells in minutia
And in narrowest limits no limits inhere.
What joy to discern the minute in infinity!
The vast to perceive in the small, what divinity!
Translated from the Latin by Helen M. Walker
Found in the anthology, Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics (A K Peters, 2008), edited by Sarah Glaz and me. A complete table of Contents for this collection may be found here.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Like advanced math?
One thing leads to another . .. . poet Amy Eisner connected me to mathematician Jordan Ellenberg who knew of Easy Math (Sarabande Books, 2013) by Lauren Shapiro -- and Lauren gave me permission to post her "Bent Syllogism."
Bent Syllogism by Lauren Shapiro
There was a pattern to the way the mythical beasts
flew over the dreary town, but we were too dreary
to understand it. The psychologist, too, was in touch
with extraterrestrials, but she had to stand on the spire
of a church and wear 3-D glasses to see them.
Bent Syllogism by Lauren Shapiro
There was a pattern to the way the mythical beasts
flew over the dreary town, but we were too dreary
to understand it. The psychologist, too, was in touch
with extraterrestrials, but she had to stand on the spire
of a church and wear 3-D glasses to see them.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Love mathematics!
In the stanzas below, I have some fun with math terminology. Hope you'll enjoy it too.
Love! by JoAnne Growney
Love algebra! Through variable numbers
of factored afternoons and prime evenings,
party in and out of your circle of associates,
identify your identity, meet your inverse.
Love! by JoAnne Growney
Love algebra! Through variable numbers
of factored afternoons and prime evenings,
party in and out of your circle of associates,
identify your identity, meet your inverse.
Labels:
arithmetic,
calculus,
chaos,
identity,
imaginary,
Integral,
inverse,
Mobius band,
pi,
prime,
rational,
real,
symmetries,
tangent
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Neruda speaks of numeration
The collection, Late and Posthumous Poems, 1968-1974 (Grove Press, 1988) by Chilean Nobelist Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) offers to readers a collection of Neruda's later work, ably translated by Ben Belitt. Here is a poem that explores the vast world opened by the invention of numeration.
28325674549 by Pablo Neruda
A hand made the number.
It joined one little stone
to another, one thunderclap
to another,
one fallen eagle
to another, one
arrowhead to another,
and then with the patience of granite
the hand
made a double incision, two wounds,
and two grooves: and a
number was born.
28325674549 by Pablo Neruda
A hand made the number.
It joined one little stone
to another, one thunderclap
to another,
one fallen eagle
to another, one
arrowhead to another,
and then with the patience of granite
the hand
made a double incision, two wounds,
and two grooves: and a
number was born.
Labels:
counting,
number,
numeral,
numeration,
Pablo Neruda,
poem
Thursday, October 31, 2013
On poetry and geometric truth . . .
On poetry and geometric truth
And their high privilege of lasting life,
From all internal injury exempt,
I mused; upon these chiefly: and at length,
My senses yielding to the sultry air,
Sleep seized me, and I passed into a dream.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
from The Prelude, Book 5
Labels:
geometric,
poetry,
truth,
William Wordsworth
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From order to chaos -- a sonnet
Fractals by Diana Der-Hovanessian
Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
Euclid alone began to formulate
the relation of circle, plane and sphere
in equations making it quite clear
that symmetry is what we celebrate.
Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
Euclid alone began to formulate
the relation of circle, plane and sphere
in equations making it quite clear
that symmetry is what we celebrate.
Labels:
Benoit Mandelbrot,
chaos,
Diana Der-Hovanessian,
Euclid,
fractal,
symmetry,
turbulence
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Two cultures
The opening poem of Uneasy Relations by mathematician-poet Michael Bartholomew-Biggs is concerned with similarities and differences between mathematical and poetic cultures -- a topic of immense interest also to me and one that I too try to address in my verse. I wonder -- HOW can I show non-mathematicians that good mathematics is poetry??!! And, moreover, how can I (mostly a mathematician) write (as advocated by Wallace Stevens and agreed with by other poets) of things rather than (as mathematics wants) of ideas. OR, may one make poetry of ideas?
Two Cultures by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
Graves claimed there isn't
much money in poetry:
and none vice-versa.
The first part stays true
if we replace poetry
by mathematics.
Two Cultures by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
Graves claimed there isn't
much money in poetry:
and none vice-versa.
The first part stays true
if we replace poetry
by mathematics.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Two-line poems -- Landays -- from Afghanistan
Celebrate Activist Poetry -- At Nov. 1 Event
BE THERE on November 1, 2013 at the Goethe-Intitut in Washington DC when poet and journalist Eliza Griswold is honored with the Split this Rock Freedom Plow Award (register here for this important event) for Poetry and Activism for her work collecting and introducing the folk poems of Afghan women to America. The June issue of Poetry Magazine is entirely dedicated to landays -- two-line poems by Afghan women that capture dark, funny, and revealing moments that few outsiders ever witness. (Edited and introduced by Griswold, the poems are magnificently supplemented by photographs by Seamus Murphy.)
Here are three landays from Griswold's Poetry collection, each selected for inclusion here because it includes at least one number:
Labels:
Afghan,
Eliza Griswold,
Freedom Plow Award,
landay,
number,
poem,
Poetry Foundation,
Split This Rock
Monday, October 21, 2013
Topology for poets
The title of this posting ("Topology for Poets") comes from Maryland Poet Amy Eisner's poem "Lure" (offered below) -- a poem that plays with math concepts. (In mathematics, "topology" is a variant of geometry in two shapes are "equivalent" if one could be obtained from the other by stretching or bending.)
It was my pleasure to meet Amy when she read in the Takoma Park Third Thursday Poetry Series earlier this year. I like her work. Enjoy!
Lure by Amy Eisner
1.
My friend is crocheting a fishing line. This is not a gift and keeps no one warm.
This is withdrawing. Persisting in a flaw. Forfending.
She knows there’s something perverse in it. Like growing a mold garden.
Fishing does involve a hook, a line, and a net. But not like this.
It was my pleasure to meet Amy when she read in the Takoma Park Third Thursday Poetry Series earlier this year. I like her work. Enjoy!
Lure by Amy Eisner
1.
My friend is crocheting a fishing line. This is not a gift and keeps no one warm.
This is withdrawing. Persisting in a flaw. Forfending.
She knows there’s something perverse in it. Like growing a mold garden.
Fishing does involve a hook, a line, and a net. But not like this.
Labels:
Amy Eisner,
infinite series,
line,
mathematics,
net,
poem,
Takoma Park,
topology
Friday, October 18, 2013
Mathematics of love . . .
"Mathematics of Love" is the title poem of a collection by John Edwin Cohen (1941-2012), published in 2011 by Anaphora Literary Press and presented here with press permission. Cohen has used mathematics playfully and does what a mathematician never dares to do, use a mathematical term with other than its precise meaning. Still, perhaps, even math folks may enjoy this application of geometric shape and poetic license!
Mathematics of Love by John Edwin Cohen
1.
Engine of joy
arithmetic and sincere
holding the hemisphere
and geometry of
youth
Mathematics of Love by John Edwin Cohen
1.
Engine of joy
arithmetic and sincere
holding the hemisphere
and geometry of
youth
Labels:
algebras,
circle,
geometry,
hypotenuse,
John Edwin Cohen,
mathematician,
mathematics,
tangent,
zeroes
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Circle Power
Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle
by Black Elk (1863-1950) (translated from Sioux)
Everything the Power of the World does
is done in a circle. The sky is round,
and I have heard that the earth is round
like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Labels:
Black Elk,
circle,
Favorite Poem Project,
power,
Sioux
Monday, October 14, 2013
"My Proteins"
The mysteries of science are sometimes explored in poems and, in this vein, I was delighted to find "My Proteins" by Jane Hirshfield (a poet whose work I like and admire) on page 56 of the September 16, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. As she explores the riddles of who she is and where she came from, she has these lines-with-numbers (stanzas 3 and 4):
from My Proteins by Jane Hirshfield
Ninety percent of my cells, they have discovered,
are not my own person,
they are other beings inside me.
As ninety-six percent of my life is not my life.
. . .
Look for the entire poem; and enjoy!
Another exploration of what the self is and isn't may be found in Hirshfield's "My Skeleton" -- today's Poem-A-Day selection from Poets.org. Jane Hirshfield's poem "Mathematics" is available here in my post for 23 June 2010.
from My Proteins by Jane Hirshfield
Ninety percent of my cells, they have discovered,
are not my own person,
they are other beings inside me.
As ninety-six percent of my life is not my life.
. . .
Look for the entire poem; and enjoy!
Another exploration of what the self is and isn't may be found in Hirshfield's "My Skeleton" -- today's Poem-A-Day selection from Poets.org. Jane Hirshfield's poem "Mathematics" is available here in my post for 23 June 2010.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Mathews retells Dowland (with permutations)
In my post for 6 September 2013 I presented Oulipian Harry Mathews' poem "Multiple Choice" -- a poem whose alternative story lines might be represented by a tree diagram. That poem was but one of 29 variations (or "Exercises in Style") by Harry Mathews as he retold again and again a tale first offered by lute-player and composer John Dowland (1563-1626), a musician whose work still finds audience today. Here is Dowland's tale, from which Matthews created 29 alternative versions. (See "Trial Impressions" in Armenian Papers, Poems 1954-1984 (Princeton University Press, 1987, out of print) and in A Mid-Season Sky: Poems 1953-1991 (Carcanet, 1992).)
Labels:
Equivoque,
Exercises in Style,
Harry Mathews,
John Dowland,
Oulipo,
permutation,
poem
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Split This Rock 2014
Plan now to attend the 4th national biennial Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness in Washington, DC, March 27-30, 2014.
The sixteen poets to be featured at the 2014 festival are: Sheila Black, Franny Choi, Eduardo C. Corral, Gayle Danley, Natalie Diaz, Joy Harjo, Maria Melendez Kelson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dunya Mikhail, Shailja Patel, Wang Ping, Claudia Rankine, Tim Seibles, Myra Sklarew, Danez Smith, and Anne Waldman. The website SplitThisRock.org offers photographs and more information about the festival. It will be awesome!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Measuring the World . . .
Yesterday afternoon, at the Goethe Institut in Washington DC, I saw a wonderful film, "Measuring the World." Based on a popular 2005 novel by Daniel Kehlmann, the story of a friendship between preeminent German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) and Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). The film offers a delightful interplay of personalities and ideas as it darts between the explorations of these two men -- one digging inside his head for mathematics and the other traveling over mountains, through jungles, across oceans.
Labels:
Alexander von Humboldt,
Carl Friedrich Gauss,
exploration,
film,
mathematics,
poem,
Sherman Stein,
sum
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Sonnet -- To Science
Edgar Allan Poe's "Sonnet -- To Science" was the "Poem-A-Day" selection of poets.org last week on September 29. The poem is in the public domain and I offer it to you below. As Poe speaks of science I wonder whether -- if he had not announced his subject -- we might as easily imagine he is speaking of poetry.
Labels:
Edgar Allan Poe,
poem,
science,
sonnet,
time
Monday, September 30, 2013
Splendid Wake project
On Wednesday, September 25, more than one hundred poets met at the George Washington University Gelman Library's Special Collection Conference Room to show support for the Splendid Wake project -- an effort to document poetry in the Washington, DC area from 1900 forward. Initiated more than a year ago by Myra Sklarew and Elisavietta Ritchie, the project will honor poets associated with our nation's capital. Interested persons are invited to visit the project's main page and to consider a submission -- biographies and information about poetry projects of all sorts (journals, reading series, websites, and so on). Management of the project is being coordinated by GW Special Collections Librarian Jennifer King (jenking @ gwu.edu).
In celebration of this project, here is "Monuments," a sestina (a poetic form involving permutations of the line-end-words) by Myra Sklarew that honors some of DC's past poets.
In celebration of this project, here is "Monuments," a sestina (a poetic form involving permutations of the line-end-words) by Myra Sklarew that honors some of DC's past poets.
Labels:
mathematics,
monuments,
Myra Sklarew,
permutation,
poetry,
sestina,
Splendid Wake,
Washington DC
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Averaging . . . geometry of the center
Perhaps partly due to his experience as an Air Force pilot during World War II, Harold Nemerov (1920 - 1991) uses geometry with deft precision as he describes phenomena around him. Here is a poem inspired by a 1986 news item.
Found Poem by Howard Nemerov
after information received in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4 v 86
The population center of the USA
Has shifted to Potosi, in Missouri.
The calculation employed by authorities
In arriving at this dislocation assumes
That the country is a geometric plane,
Perfectly flat, and that every citizen,
Found Poem by Howard Nemerov
after information received in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4 v 86
The population center of the USA
Has shifted to Potosi, in Missouri.
The calculation employed by authorities
In arriving at this dislocation assumes
That the country is a geometric plane,
Perfectly flat, and that every citizen,
Labels:
average,
balance,
calculation,
center,
flat,
geometry,
Howard Nemerov,
plane,
point,
population
Monday, September 23, 2013
A poet re-envisions space
University of Pennsylvania professor Robert Ghrist, in his September 19 lecture ("Putting Topology to Work") at the MAA's Carriage House, credited poet John Milton (1608-1674) with the first use of the word space as an abstract entity -- and, Ghrist asserted, by so doing, Milton opened a door to the study of abstract space (known in mathematics as topology).
The following material is a 24 September correction
from my 23 September posting. For I discovered -- in a thoughtful email from Ghrist --
that the proper citation of "space" was not from line 50 of Book 1 but from line 89 of Book 7.
(I invite you go to Project Gutenberg for Paradise Lost in its entirety.)
Here, below, I have replaced my original posting of lines 44-74 of Book 1
with lines 80 - 97 of Book 7 -- lines taken from my shelf copy of Milton's Paradise Lost,
the 1968 Signet Classic Edition, edited by Christopher Ricks.
In the selection below and throughout his epic, Milton replaces past visions of hell down-in-the-earth and heaven up-in-the-sky with more complex and abstract configurations.
Labels:
abstract,
Cassius Keyser,
John Milton,
Karl Patten,
MAA,
mathematics,
Paradise Lost,
poet,
poetry,
Robert Ghrist,
space,
topology
Thursday, September 19, 2013
BRIDGES poems, from 17 poets
Due to the hard work of mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz, poetry has been an important part of recent BRIDGES-Math-Art Conferences. And, under her editing, a Bridges 2013 Poetry Anthology has been released, featuring poetry from these poets who participated in one or more of the three most recent BRIDGES conferences (Enschede, Netherlands, 2013; Towson, Maryland, 2012; Coimbra, Portugal, 2011).
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Perfect circle, Haiku
Perfect circle round
the moon
In the center of the sky
by Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), from Book of Haikus (Penguin, 2003). Thanks, Francisco.
PS. If Kerouac were a mathematician he'd have noticed that "perfect" is implied by the definition of "circle" and is unnecessary. But Kerouac was a poet and he saw a different necessity.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Consider Pascal
Mathematician Blaise Pascal (France, 1623-1662) is known for his explorations with computing machines, for his ideas concerning probabilities, for trying to make rational a decision to believe in God and eternal life, for his explorations of the cycloid and the limacon (curves generated by rolling circles) and a host of other topics.
I was introduced to Melbourne poet, novelist, and mathematician (he teaches at Victoria University of Technology), Tom Petsinis by South-African editor of Poetry-International, Liesl Jobson. Here from Petsinis' collection, Naming the Number (Penguin, 1998) is "Pascal's Tooth," (a poem also available at the Poetry-International site). In the grip of severe pain, Petsinis ponders the ideas of Pascal.
I was introduced to Melbourne poet, novelist, and mathematician (he teaches at Victoria University of Technology), Tom Petsinis by South-African editor of Poetry-International, Liesl Jobson. Here from Petsinis' collection, Naming the Number (Penguin, 1998) is "Pascal's Tooth," (a poem also available at the Poetry-International site). In the grip of severe pain, Petsinis ponders the ideas of Pascal.
Labels:
cycloid,
Galois,
Liesl Jobson,
paradox,
Pascal,
Poetry International,
proof,
Tom Petsinis,
wager
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Kaplansky sings Kaplansky (and Pi)
I first knew of mathematician Irving Kaplansky (1917-2006) through his monograph, Infinite Abelian Groups -- it was one of my texts for a graduate seminar (with Gene Levy) at the University of Oklahoma in the 1960s. Later I knew Kaplansky as a songwriter, author of new lyrics for "That's Entertainment." Kaplansky's adaptation, "That's Mathematics," dedicated to his former student, math-musician-songwriter Tom Lehrer, and to his daughter, singer Lucy Kaplansky, is given below.
In 1999, in Science News, writer Ivars Peterson (now Director of Publications for the MAA -- Mathematical Association of America) wrote an article about Kaplansky's songwriting in which he mentions his daughter, Lucy Kaplansky, a singer who frequently performs her father's songs. A YouTube recording of Lucy singing "The Song of Pi" (in which there is a correspondence between musical notes and the first fourteen digits of pi) is available here. (Lyrics for "The Song of Pi" and information about the correspondence are available in Peterson's article.)
In 1999, in Science News, writer Ivars Peterson (now Director of Publications for the MAA -- Mathematical Association of America) wrote an article about Kaplansky's songwriting in which he mentions his daughter, Lucy Kaplansky, a singer who frequently performs her father's songs. A YouTube recording of Lucy singing "The Song of Pi" (in which there is a correspondence between musical notes and the first fourteen digits of pi) is available here. (Lyrics for "The Song of Pi" and information about the correspondence are available in Peterson's article.)
Monday, September 9, 2013
Nature poems -- at Stillwater
As noted in my 5 August posting, the Stillwater poetry festival (organized by Kevin Clark) was scheduled for last Saturday, September 7 -- and I was (though delayed by the death of a car battery) able to attend. A time to catch up with old friends -- River Poets Dave Barsky, Carol Ann Heckman, and Janet Locke, and Wilkes-Barre poet Richard Aston. Poets and musicians featured at the festival included Lester Hirsh, Pamela Kavanaugh, James Pingry, Doug McMinn, Jack Troy, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, and Sheryl St. Germain.
The theme at Stillwater was Nature/Agriculture and my 5 August post included poems from conference organizer Clark and featured reader Kasdorf -- poems that involved both nature and mathematics. Although found in Kasdorf's opening poem, "Double the Digits," mathematics was scarce. Sheryl St. Germain, the final reader (currently a Pittsburgher, transplanted from New Orleans) briefly mentions computation and measurement in her "Hurricane Season ." The full poem is available through St Germain's website; here is one of its stanzas.
The theme at Stillwater was Nature/Agriculture and my 5 August post included poems from conference organizer Clark and featured reader Kasdorf -- poems that involved both nature and mathematics. Although found in Kasdorf's opening poem, "Double the Digits," mathematics was scarce. Sheryl St. Germain, the final reader (currently a Pittsburgher, transplanted from New Orleans) briefly mentions computation and measurement in her "Hurricane Season ." The full poem is available through St Germain's website; here is one of its stanzas.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Mathematical structure and Multiple choice
A sonnet repeats the iambic rhythm of the heart beat (da-DUM, da-DUM, . . .) with a line length corresponding to a typical breath (5 heartbeats); it thus seems easy to internalize the numerical structure that guides such a poem.
A decision tree offers a very different choice of mathematical structure for a poem -- displaying for a reader different choices among stanzas. Originally proposed to the OULIPO by founder Francois Le Lionnais, and referred to as a multiple-choice narrative, such a structure allows readers of a poem to choose among subsequent events. Instead of reading the poem vertically, we may jump about, choosing the sequence we want to read.
A decision tree offers a very different choice of mathematical structure for a poem -- displaying for a reader different choices among stanzas. Originally proposed to the OULIPO by founder Francois Le Lionnais, and referred to as a multiple-choice narrative, such a structure allows readers of a poem to choose among subsequent events. Instead of reading the poem vertically, we may jump about, choosing the sequence we want to read.
Labels:
decision tree,
Harry Mathews,
mathematics,
multiple choice,
Oulipo,
poetry,
sonnet,
structure
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Poetry-with-math in Baltimore -- 17 Jan 2014
At the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore (January 15-18, 2014), the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (under the leadership of editors Mark Huber and Gizem Karaali) will sponsor a poetry reading. Mark your calendar now! (And be sure to scroll down past the reading announcement to poems from last year's JHM reading in San Diego by poets Katie Manning and Karen Morgan Ivy.)
Friday, January 17, 2014. 4:30 - 6:30 PM
Room 308 Baltimore Convention Center
Saturday, August 31, 2013
A square-root of dead weight . . .
A poet I love (Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013, 1995 Nobelist) has died. The NYTimes obituary for Heaney quotes one of my favorites of his poems, "Digging" -- also available at poetryfoundation.org. Part of what I like about this Irishman's poetry is its design. Not only do his poems offer musicality of language but they feel carefully constructed -- modeling real world phenomena as mathematical models do -- built with careful attention to structure and detail until varied factors have been erected into in integrated whole. "Digging" ties together the physical activity of Heaney's father shoveling in the peat bogs of Ireland to his own probing with a pen for words.
Labels:
balance,
digging,
Nobel Prize,
poetry,
Seamus Heaney,
sestina,
square,
square root,
weighing,
weight
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Poetry in a math text
In the 1980s, all students at Bloomsburg University were required to take at least one mathematics course and I worked with colleagues to develop a suitable offering -- one that did not require expertise in algebra but which emphasized problem-solving. Our course became "Mathematical Thinking" -- and I began to develop suitable materials -- eventually writing and publishing Mathematics in Daily Life: Making Decisions and Solving Problems (McGraw-Hill, 1986). Each of the twenty-two chapters of this textbook is introduced with a relevant quote. Chapter 11, "Visualizing the Structure of Information with a Tree Diagram," opens with two lines by one of my favorite poets, Theodore Roethke:
Once upon a tree
I came across a time.
Once upon a tree
I came across a time.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Celebrating a math-woman
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 you send it along.
When you find one (or create one) I will be glad to have you send it along.
The lunar crater L Herschel is named for astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) -- and I have celebrated this math-woman earlier with two fine poems: "Letter from Caroline Herschel" by Siv Cedering , and "Planetarium" by Adrienne Rich. Now Herschel is the focus of a forthcoming book by poet Laura Long, The Eye of Caroline Herschel: A Life in Poems, (Finishing Line Press, 2013). Here, from that collection, is "The Taste of Mathematics: Caroline Herschel at 31" -- this poem also appears, along with a note about the full collection, in the July 2013 issue of The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
Labels:
calculating,
Caroline Herschel,
conjunction,
figure,
Laura Long,
logarithm,
pi
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Out of 100 -- in the Klondike Gold Rush
Adding to my recent post on 19 August I note that OEDILF is seeking submissions.
Join the project: submit limerick definitions of (math) terms for OEDILF consideration.
Join the project: submit limerick definitions of (math) terms for OEDILF consideration.
One of my favorite poets is the 1996 Nobelist Wislawa Szymborska (1923 - 2012, Poland); one of my favorites of her poems is "A Contribution to Statistics." Szymborska's poem served as a model for a poem of mine shown below, about Gold Rush Days in Skagway, Alaska. Written while I was poet-in-residence at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, (in Skagway), this poem draws on historical data from the park's library to paint a bleak picture of wealth and survival in those gold-mad days.
Counting in the Klondike by JoAnne Growney
after Wisława Szymborska
Of 100 who left Seattle for Skagway in 1898
40 made it to the gold fields
8 found gold.
Labels:
100,
Alaska,
Gold Rush,
Klondike,
OEDILF,
poem,
poet,
Skagway,
statistics,
Wislawa Szymborska
Monday, August 19, 2013
OEDILF - the Limerick Dictionary
At this site Editor-in-Chief Chris Strolin is coordinating development of OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form. So far, definitions are available (and being submitted) for terms beginning with letter-pairs Aa - Fd -- and completion of the dictionary is predicted at the OEDILF website for 2043.
I have mentioned OEDILF before -- on 5 December 2012 and 29 March 2010. And today I offer a draft limerick about "factors" -- I am at this point, however, dissatisfied with my use of the plural rather than simply "factor." More work needed.
I have mentioned OEDILF before -- on 5 December 2012 and 29 March 2010. And today I offer a draft limerick about "factors" -- I am at this point, however, dissatisfied with my use of the plural rather than simply "factor." More work needed.
Labels:
Chris Strolin,
factor,
limerick,
OEDILF,
prime
Friday, August 16, 2013
Pushkin inspires Seth -- novels in verse
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 (Random House, 1986) by taking turns reading its sonnets aloud to each other. After several dozen aloud, I could hear the voice even when I read silently and I went on to finish alone. And I loved it. I have gone on to enjoy several more works by Seth -- none of them poems but all wonderful stories, well told.
Seth has said that he was moved to write by the novel Alexander Pushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin noted here on 10 August 2013 -- a novel of interest to mathematicians because of its link to Markov Chains. Seth's novel (reviewed here) also was made into an opera. These first two stanzas -- each containing the numbers 26 and 1980 -- introduce the novel's computer-guy, John:
Seth has said that he was moved to write by the novel Alexander Pushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin noted here on 10 August 2013 -- a novel of interest to mathematicians because of its link to Markov Chains. Seth's novel (reviewed here) also was made into an opera. These first two stanzas -- each containing the numbers 26 and 1980 -- introduce the novel's computer-guy, John:
Labels:
Alexander Pushkin,
Eugene Onegin,
Markov chain,
number,
poem,
sonnet,
The Golden Gate,
Vikram Seth
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Emily Dickinson
Although I do not consider any of Emily Dickinson's poems "mathematical," I find that she does not shy from using the terminology of mathematics. For example, her repetition of the word "circumference" noted in an earlier posting. (To search this blog for mentions of Dickinson (1830 - 1886) or any other poet or topic, follow the instructions offered in green in the column to the right.)
Dickinson is on my mind these recent days following my opportunity last Saturday evening to attend a session of a conference held by the Emily Dickinson International Society. A gracious invitation by Martha Nell Smith enabled me to attend a program that featured two long-time friends, actor Laurie McCants of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, performing a scene from her one-woman show, Industrious Angels, and Stephanie Strickland, a New York poet who, along with collaborator Nick Montfort, offered background and performance for Sea and Spar Between, a poetry generator that works with language patterns for these two writers.
Dickinson is on my mind these recent days following my opportunity last Saturday evening to attend a session of a conference held by the Emily Dickinson International Society. A gracious invitation by Martha Nell Smith enabled me to attend a program that featured two long-time friends, actor Laurie McCants of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, performing a scene from her one-woman show, Industrious Angels, and Stephanie Strickland, a New York poet who, along with collaborator Nick Montfort, offered background and performance for Sea and Spar Between, a poetry generator that works with language patterns for these two writers.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Pushkin poetry, Markov chains
A Markov chain is a mathematical process that can be used to answer questions such as these:
If the current letter I am reading is a vowel, what is the probability
that the next letter will be a vowel? A consonant?
Answers from these may be combined to create more lengthy predictions -- about the 3rd letter after a given one, or the 10th -- and so on.
A recent article by Brian Hayes in American Scientist (brought to my attention by Greg Coxson) alerted me to the fact that it is 100 years since the Russian mathematician A. A. Markov (1856 - 1922) announced his findings about these transition probabilities -- and, moreover, his work was based on analysis of poetry; the poetry was Eugene Onegin, a verse-novel in iambic tetrameter by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). Markov's analyis dealt with Pushkin's novel as a long string of alphabetic characters and he tabulated the categories of vowels and consonants for about 20,000 letters. (For a host of details, visit Hayes' careful and interesting article.)
If the current letter I am reading is a vowel, what is the probability
that the next letter will be a vowel? A consonant?
Answers from these may be combined to create more lengthy predictions -- about the 3rd letter after a given one, or the 10th -- and so on.
A recent article by Brian Hayes in American Scientist (brought to my attention by Greg Coxson) alerted me to the fact that it is 100 years since the Russian mathematician A. A. Markov (1856 - 1922) announced his findings about these transition probabilities -- and, moreover, his work was based on analysis of poetry; the poetry was Eugene Onegin, a verse-novel in iambic tetrameter by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). Markov's analyis dealt with Pushkin's novel as a long string of alphabetic characters and he tabulated the categories of vowels and consonants for about 20,000 letters. (For a host of details, visit Hayes' careful and interesting article.)
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Feynman Point poems
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 the decimal point. When writing in Pilish (using word-lengths that correspond to digits of π), the Feynman Point offers a particular challenge since 9-letter words are infrequent. I learned about the Feynman Point here. AND I found a splendid database that makes the difficult task of choosing 6 9-letter words easily doable. Here is my first Feynman Point poem:
Scratchers sleepwalk --
seriously screening sentences,
slantwise.
Mike Keith's Pilish short story, Cadeic Cadenza, has this Feynman Point:
Scratchers sleepwalk --
seriously screening sentences,
slantwise.
Mike Keith's Pilish short story, Cadeic Cadenza, has this Feynman Point:
Labels:
digit,
Feynman Point,
pi,
Pilish,
poem,
probability
Monday, August 5, 2013
Poetry on Back Roads -- Stillwater Festival
On Saturday, September 7, a poetry festival will happen in Stillwater, PA (a small town not far from Bloomsburg where I lived and professored for many years). From noon to 9 at the Stillwater Memorial Park (63 McHenry Street (Rt 487) Stillwater, PA), organized by Kevin Clark, held in a revival-style tent, the the reading will have nature and agriculture as its theme -- and featured poets will include Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Sheryl St Germain, and Jack Troy. (And there will be two open mic sessions.)
Offered below are two poems by festival participants -- these are poems of numbers and travels (and more): "Double the Digits" by Penn State poet, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, and "Tag Clouds," by Stillwater festival organizer, Kevin Clark (contact using StillwaterPoetry-at-yahoo-dot-com).
Offered below are two poems by festival participants -- these are poems of numbers and travels (and more): "Double the Digits" by Penn State poet, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, and "Tag Clouds," by Stillwater festival organizer, Kevin Clark (contact using StillwaterPoetry-at-yahoo-dot-com).
Labels:
digits,
festival,
Julia Spicher Kasdorf,
Kevin Clark,
poem,
poetry,
Stillwater
Friday, August 2, 2013
Nursery Rhyme Mathematics
During the last week of July I was in California, vacationing with family (including six of my grandchildren). Most of these kids have grown past a fascination with nursery rhymes, but I still like them -- and think it's likely that memorization of rhymes helps with learning to read and count.
Here is one of my favorites, "A Diller, a Dollar."
Here is one of my favorites, "A Diller, a Dollar."
Labels:
counting,
dollar,
grandchildren,
mathematics,
poem,
rhyme,
St Ives
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