Inspired by the musical composition strategy twelve-tone technique -- devised by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1974-1951), in which all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sound as often as one another in a piece of music -- American poet Elizabeth Bartlett (1911-1994) has developed the twelve-tone poem. In Bartlett's words:
The poem consists of 12 lines, divided into couplets.
Each couplet contains 12 syllables, using the natural cadence of speech.
The accented sounds of the words are considered tones.
Only 12 tones are used throughout the poem, repeated various times.
As a result, the poem achieves a rare harmony that is purely lyrical,
enriching its imagery and meaning
The following poem is on my shelf in Memory Is No Stranger (Ohio Univ. Press, 1981), a collection of Bartlett's twelve-tone poems; it also is found in the math-poetry anthology Against Infinity (Primary Press, 1979).
The Infinite Present by Elizabeth Bartlett
Because I longed
to comprehend the infinite
Friday, October 12, 2018
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Math-Poetry Contest for Maryland Students
Submission deadline: November 9, 2018
Winners Announced: December 12, 2018
Write
a
thoughtful
poem that
shows ways math is most
amazing -- a subject we love!
Winners Announced: December 12, 2018
Winning Poems Presented: January 19, 2019
The American Mathematical Society is conducting a math poetry contest for Maryland students–middle school, high school, and undergraduate students -- as part of the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore (Jan. 16-19, Baltimore Convention Center). The contest is free to enter; information is at this link. Winning poems will be printed on posters and poets will read them at the meeting as part of Mathemati-Con, a math festival for students.Write
a
thoughtful
poem that
shows ways math is most
amazing -- a subject we love!
The stanza above is a Fib -- whose lines have syllables counted by the first six Fibonacci numbers.
Monday, October 8, 2018
A special Fibonacci poem
A recent email from Marian Christie -- a nominally retired mathematics teacher from Aberdeenshire -- alerted me to her very special sort of Fibonacci poem, one in which the number of letters-per-line follows the Fibonacci numbers AND the length of each word is a Fibonacci number AND the poem speaks about the objects counted by these Fibonacci numbers.
Pathways by Marian Christie
–
O
I
am
not
going
anywhere
unaccompanied
by life’s patterns: a whorl
in a pinecone, branches on oak or elm trees,
the petal count of a daisy, the helix at the heart of a chrysanthemum,
the shell of a nautilus swimming in the ocean. A sequence hides in the shape of
probabilities, and in my own DNA.
Poet's Note: In this poem the number of letters per line is determined by the Fibonacci sequence: the first line has zero letters while the last line, representing the twelfth number in the sequence, contains 89 letters. In addition, the letters of each word add up to a Fibonacci number.
Pathways by Marian Christie
–
O
I
am
not
going
anywhere
unaccompanied
by life’s patterns: a whorl
in a pinecone, branches on oak or elm trees,
the petal count of a daisy, the helix at the heart of a chrysanthemum,
the shell of a nautilus swimming in the ocean. A sequence hides in the shape of
probabilities, and in my own DNA.
Poet's Note: In this poem the number of letters per line is determined by the Fibonacci sequence: the first line has zero letters while the last line, representing the twelfth number in the sequence, contains 89 letters. In addition, the letters of each word add up to a Fibonacci number.
Christie's poem was first published on the UK-based website IndependentVariable.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Line and design -- poetry by Adrienne Rich
A poem I first read during my high school years -- and have loved ever since -- is "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" by Adrienne Rich (1929-2012). Found along with that poem in Collected Early Poems 1950-1970 (W W Norton, 1994) is another poem by Rich that I also like a lot -- and offer below -- this one containing a bit of mathematics and a lot to reflect on . . .
Boundary by Adrienne Rich
What has happened here will do
To bite the living world in two,
Half for me and half for you.
Here at last I fix a line
Severing the world’s design
Too small to hold both yours and mine.
There’s enormity in a hair
Enough to lead men not to share
Narrow confines of a sphere
But put an ocean or a fence
Between two opposite intents.
A hair would span the difference.
Boundary by Adrienne Rich
What has happened here will do
To bite the living world in two,
Half for me and half for you.
Here at last I fix a line
Severing the world’s design
Too small to hold both yours and mine.
There’s enormity in a hair
Enough to lead men not to share
Narrow confines of a sphere
But put an ocean or a fence
Between two opposite intents.
A hair would span the difference.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
The equal sign--and poetry--from Robert Recorde
A poetic introduction of the equal sign (by Robert Recorde):
![]() |
This image is an excerpt from Recorde's The Whetstone of Witte (1557) |
Robert Recorde was born in Wales around 1510-12; he taught mathematics at both Oxford and Cambridge and got his MD from Cambridge in 1545 -- and became a physician to royalty. He published a number of mathematical works -- one of the best known being The Whetstone of Witte (1557) -- a photographic copy of several of its pages is available here. He is lauded for the invention of the equal sign, first appearing, as shown above, in The Whetstone of Witte. -- This article from 2015 in WalesOnline cites Recorde's greatest achievement to be making mathematics accessible to a general reader.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Counting syllables . . . measuring memory
Political events of this past week (involving a candidate nominated by President 45 to serve on the Supreme Court) have triggered my thinking about the transience of memory. Here is a Syllable-Snowball poem that includes some of these musings:
What happened back then?
My
sister
disagrees --
her version of
our growing-up lives
so often discrepant
from mine. Each new year --
new distances,
new angles,
shape our
views.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Name five!
A recent mailing from the National Museum of Women in the Arts offered me this challenge: name five female artists! Including friends who are artists made this easy -- but I needed a bit of internet help to list five famous names. This effort has suggests another challenge:
A few words in closing:
14 Syllables
A hen lays eggs
one by one;
the way you
count life
is life.
NAME (at least) FIVE FEMALE MATHEMATICIANS !
One way to meet math-women is through a variety of poems that celebrate them -- lots of poems about math-women are found in this blog. The Search and Labels features (in right-hand column of blog) can be useful. Here are several links to get started:
A poem by Brian McCabe about Sophie Germain;
a poem by Eavan Boland about Grace Murray Hopper;
a poem by Carol Dorf about Ada Lovelace;
a poem of mine about Sofia Kovalevsky;
a poem of mine about Emmy Noether
And this link leads to a great variety of math-women resources.
A few words in closing:
14 Syllables
A hen lays eggs
one by one;
the way you
count life
is life.
from JoAnne Growney's collection Red Has No Reason (Plain View Press, 2010).
Monday, September 24, 2018
Celebrate math students -- a Fibonacci poem!
South Dakota mathematician Dan May teaches mathematics at Black Hills State University where he also leads workshops for middle school teachers, explores musicology and the connections between poetry and discrete mathematics. He has been involved in math-poetry activities at Bridges Math-Arts conferences but, more importantly, he has been involved with BEAM (Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics), a program offering varied academic assistance to underserved students, including a summer residential program. The following Fibonacci poem celebrates that adventure.
BEAM: A Fibonacci Poem by Dan May
Now
you
are home —
Brooklyn, Queens,
the Bronx, your boroughs.
Only yesterday still at camp,
learning knots and graphs, writing proofs on infinity.
I taught you the one hundred and sixty-eight automorphisms of the Fano plane.
You wear hijabs, or Jordans, or both. Diverse faces
display the doubts of twelve-year-olds.
But each of you, when
you get it —
your face
lights
Up.
BEAM: A Fibonacci Poem by Dan May
Now
you
are home —
Brooklyn, Queens,
the Bronx, your boroughs.
Only yesterday still at camp,
learning knots and graphs, writing proofs on infinity.
I taught you the one hundred and sixty-eight automorphisms of the Fano plane.
You wear hijabs, or Jordans, or both. Diverse faces
display the doubts of twelve-year-olds.
But each of you, when
you get it —
your face
lights
Up.
Author’s Note: The poem’s syllable line count follows the
Fibonacci sequence numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 forward and backward.
This poem and several others of Dan May's math-linked poems may be found here.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
A mathy poem for sale . . . in Kenya
A vernacular poem by Kenyan writer Alexander Nderitu ("Kenya's Shakespeare") -- entitled "Mathabu ma Carey Francis" (in English, "The Mathematics of Carey Francis) -- is being auctioned by the poet for bids starting at a million Kenya shillings (a bit less than $1000 US). Notable about this auction piece is that the background design on which the poem will appear is the poet's DNA sequence.
From Wikipedia, this statement about Edward Carey Francis: Edward Carey Francis (13 September 1897 – 27 July 1966) was a British mathematician and Anglican missionary to Kenya, where he became "arguably the most influential educationist in Kenya's modern history."
The opening stanza of Nderitu's poem |
From Wikipedia, this statement about Edward Carey Francis: Edward Carey Francis (13 September 1897 – 27 July 1966) was a British mathematician and Anglican missionary to Kenya, where he became "arguably the most influential educationist in Kenya's modern history."
Monday, September 17, 2018
Time and Precision . . . .
California poet Carol Dorf is a semi-retired secondary school mathematics teacher who is an important force in poetry. Not only a fine poet, Carol also is Poetry Editor of TalkingWriting, an online journal that sometimes features mathy poems. It has been my pleasure to meet Carol and to read with her on several occasions, most recently at the 2017 Bridges Conference in Waterloo, Ontario. The following poem is one that Carol read at Bridges 2018 and it is included in the Bridges Stockholm 2018 Poetry Anthology; it is a thoughtful reflection on the way that time -- and precision in its measurement -- varies in our lives.
Announce the Hour You Have Clocks For by Carol Dorf
Announce the Hour You Have Clocks For by Carol Dorf
Time progresses through the bells
announcing each moment of occupation:
toilet, wash, dress, eat, work a, break, work b . . .
eat, undress, wash, toilet.
Schematic, yes. Our clocks' precision
increases until the second,
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Meeting Math People via Poems
Mathematics classes are crowded with vital material and it is hard to find time to also consider the PEOPLE of mathematics -- one way to do this is by offering poems. In the September issue of Math Horizons, my brief article, "Mathematics and Poetry" offers a variety of samples -- introducing poems by mathematicians (including William Rowan Hamilton) and poems about mathematicians (Brian McCabe writing about Sophie Germaine, Cathryn Essinger writing about her super-logical brother).
Here are a pair of lines from Voltaire about mathematician and scientist Émilie Du Châtelet:
She has, I assure you, a genius rare.
With Horace and Newton, she can compare.
A wonderful poem to add to those quoted in the article is in the voice of a math student who protests discrimination; it is by Caribbean-American poet Audre Lorde (1934-1992) and entitled "Hanging Fire" -- the complete poem is posted here.
I should have been on the Math Team
my marks were better than his
Here is a link to a pdf of the Math Horizons article. The article does not contain web-links, BUT each of the poems may be found by searching this blog using the poet's name.
Here are a pair of lines from Voltaire about mathematician and scientist Émilie Du Châtelet:
She has, I assure you, a genius rare.
With Horace and Newton, she can compare.
A wonderful poem to add to those quoted in the article is in the voice of a math student who protests discrimination; it is by Caribbean-American poet Audre Lorde (1934-1992) and entitled "Hanging Fire" -- the complete poem is posted here.
I should have been on the Math Team
my marks were better than his
Here is a link to a pdf of the Math Horizons article. The article does not contain web-links, BUT each of the poems may be found by searching this blog using the poet's name.
Labels:
Audre Lorde,
Emilie du Chatelet,
Math Horizons
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Math Limerick Stories
Mathematics teacher Josephine Johansen is a talented teacher who works to help her students LOVE mathematics. Below are two stanzas from her illustrated tale, "The Algebra of Tree Wisdom" --written in limerick stanzas:
Pat says "Say you put on your ring
Then your necklace to you I bring
Whichever you choose
To do first, you'll not lose
You'll still be dressed for your fling."
Pete adds "On the other hand
Putting shoes and socks on as planned
Is not commutative
Won’t switching order give
An outcome that would be unplanned."
Monday, September 10, 2018
OEDILF -- with definitions in limerick form
Since 2004, OEDILF, the Oxford English Dictionary in Limerick Form has been assembling limerick definitions of English words. I learned about this amazing project in the Washington Post -- in a weekly column by Pat Myers entitled "The Style Invitational". Each year, Myers invites readers to submit limericks that define terms in a particular alphabetic range. This year's contest requested limericks that define words beginning with gl- to go-. Follow this link (and scroll) down to see some of the winners (announced this past weekend).
Alas, none of the winning limericks involved math terms, and so I offer here one of my non-winning submissions.
When you have time, visit OEDILF -- browse its limerick offerings and consider contributing some of your own. And, if you like, add limericks here via your comments below.
Alas, none of the winning limericks involved math terms, and so I offer here one of my non-winning submissions.
When you have time, visit OEDILF -- browse its limerick offerings and consider contributing some of your own. And, if you like, add limericks here via your comments below.
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Something or Nothing -- Thinking about Zero
The site of the 2019 Bridges Math-Arts conference has been announced -- it will meet in Linz, Austria next July. This link leads to the archives of the 2018 and earlier conferences. Each recent year a poetry reading (coordinated by Sarah Glaz) has been part of the Bridges activities -- and this year a poetry anthology also was compiled. Here is a poem by Canadian poet Alice Major that was featured both in this year's reading and in the anthology -- a poem that also appears, along with other math and science poems, in Major's latest collection, Welcome to the Anthropocene. (University of Alberta Press, 2018). Major's poem examines death and, as it does so, explores various meanings of zero.
Zero divided by zero by Alice Major
Zero divided by zero by Alice Major
There is no right answer.
The trains of logic crash, annihilate
certainty. Zero is just as good an answer
as one. Nothingness or loneliness.
There is no right answer.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
As a new school-year starts, a Latin Square poem
With MATH in the middle,
here is a LATIN-SQUARE poem that starts and ends with GIRLS !
girls
|
do
|
great
|
math
|
do
|
math
|
girls
|
great
|
great
|
girls
|
math
|
do
|
math
|
great
|
do
|
girls
|
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Math Is Beautiful and So Are You
Read on for a poem of love and mathematics!
This poem celebrates an upcoming wedding . . . one of my two wonderful sons will be getting married next Saturday to a lovely and special woman -- and this delightful occasion also will bring a host of scattered family members together. I am thrilled by all of this and offer, for readers also to celebrate, a lovely poem:
Math Is Beautiful and So Are You by Becky Dennison Sakellariou
If n is an even number
then I'll kiss you goodnight right here,
but if the modulus k is the unique solution,
I'll take you in my arms for the long night.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Upcoming in Washington -- National Book Festival
The BOOK WORLD section of this past weekend's Washington POST offers the program for The Library of Congress National Book Festival that will occur next Saturday, September 1, 2018 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The festival has a Poetry Stage and two of the poets who will appear have been featured in past postings in this blog. The posting on August 2, 2018 featured "American Arithmetic" by Natalie Diaz and back on June 14, 2017 was posted a section of "Life on Mars" by Tracy K. Smith. (Smith is Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress, currently in her second term in that position.)
Numbers can be powerful in describing hardships of poverty -- as in this stanza from "Theft" -- a poem that appears (pages 57-62) in Tracy Smith's collection duende (Graywolf Press, 2007).
from Theft by Tracy K. Smith
Numbers can be powerful in describing hardships of poverty -- as in this stanza from "Theft" -- a poem that appears (pages 57-62) in Tracy Smith's collection duende (Graywolf Press, 2007).
from Theft by Tracy K. Smith
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
The Arithmetic of Identity
There is never enough time to read all that I wish -- so much poetry and mathematics awaits my attention. The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa is one whose work is in my queue. Recently I have been exploring Pessoa's poetic prose in The Book of Disquiet (Ed. Jeronimo Pizarro, Trans. Margaret Jull Costa, New Directions, 2017). Below I offer the first two paragraphs of Section 152, The River of Possession -- I have delighted in their play with numbers and meaning:
It is axiomatic of our humanity that we are all different. We only look alike from a distance and, therefore, when we are least ourselves. Life, then, favors the undefined; only those who lack definition, and who are all equally nobodies, can coexist.
Each one of us is two, and whenever two people meet, get close or join forces, it's rare for those four to agree, If the dreamer in each man of action frequently falls out with his own personal man of action, he's sure to fall out with the other person's dreamer and man of action.
In a later paragraph, Pessoa adds: Love requires us to be both identical and different, which isn't possible in logic, still less in life.
Thank you to Portuguese mathematician-poet Francisco Jose Craiveiro de Carvalho -- who led me to Pessoa. Allen Ginsburg's poem "Salutations to Fernando Pessoa" is available here.
It is axiomatic of our humanity that we are all different. We only look alike from a distance and, therefore, when we are least ourselves. Life, then, favors the undefined; only those who lack definition, and who are all equally nobodies, can coexist.
Each one of us is two, and whenever two people meet, get close or join forces, it's rare for those four to agree, If the dreamer in each man of action frequently falls out with his own personal man of action, he's sure to fall out with the other person's dreamer and man of action.
In a later paragraph, Pessoa adds: Love requires us to be both identical and different, which isn't possible in logic, still less in life.
Thank you to Portuguese mathematician-poet Francisco Jose Craiveiro de Carvalho -- who led me to Pessoa. Allen Ginsburg's poem "Salutations to Fernando Pessoa" is available here.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Celebrating Visual Poetry
One of my delights in both poetry and mathematics is the multiplicity of meanings that come from careful attention to a particular text. Today I have been revisiting the work of visual-poets Robert "Bob" Grumman (1941-2015) and Karl Kempton and loving the surprises as I rediscover them. Visual-mathematical poet Kazmier Maslanka in his blog, "Mathematical Poetry," generously features the work of many other poets beside his own -- and here (from this link) is one of Kempton's poems:
by Karl Kempton |
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Imaginary Numbers
Today a fine poem that plays with the meanings of "real" and "imaginary" -- and one that I like a lot. Its author, Scottish mathematician-statistician-poet Eveline Pye is, like me, these days enjoying being a grandmother.
Imaginary Numbers by Eveline Pye
A real life ends, but is imagined
by those left behind. An imagined
death becomes reality, eventually.
The square root of minus one
can't exist since a squared number
can’t be negative
but imaginary numbers yield
real answers in the real world.
The difference between reality
and imagination: a false oasis
that blurs, shimmers
and melts before my eyes.
Pye's poem is included in the anthology Bridges Stockholm 2018 from Tesselations Publishing. This article, "Eveline Pye: Poetry in Numbers" is a great place to read more about the poet and her work.
Imaginary Numbers by Eveline Pye
A real life ends, but is imagined
by those left behind. An imagined
death becomes reality, eventually.
The square root of minus one
can't exist since a squared number
can’t be negative
but imaginary numbers yield
real answers in the real world.
The difference between reality
and imagination: a false oasis
that blurs, shimmers
and melts before my eyes.
Pye's poem is included in the anthology Bridges Stockholm 2018 from Tesselations Publishing. This article, "Eveline Pye: Poetry in Numbers" is a great place to read more about the poet and her work.
Monday, August 13, 2018
Speaking, understanding . . . where is truth?
A review in the Washington Post of a new book about Oscar Wilde opens with this quote:
Also in recent news, the death of Nobelist V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018) -- and here is one of this writer's thought-provoking statements:
Non-fiction can distort;
facts can be realigned.
But fiction never lies. V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
My own thoughts about language most often focus on the condensed languages of mathematics and poetry -- and the need for frequent re-readings before understanding arrives. Here, below, I include a poem by Stephanie Strickland that speaks eloquently of the struggles in which our minds engage concerning objects and the symbols that represent them -- struggles that are involved in creating and reading both mathematics and poetry . . .
Striving All My Life by Stephanie Strickland
Maxwell said: There is no more powerful way
to introduce knowledge to the mind than … as many different
ways as we can, wrenching the mind
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person."
and Wilde's words have gotten me thinking again about subtleties of language.Also in recent news, the death of Nobelist V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018) -- and here is one of this writer's thought-provoking statements:
Non-fiction can distort;
facts can be realigned.
But fiction never lies. V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
My own thoughts about language most often focus on the condensed languages of mathematics and poetry -- and the need for frequent re-readings before understanding arrives. Here, below, I include a poem by Stephanie Strickland that speaks eloquently of the struggles in which our minds engage concerning objects and the symbols that represent them -- struggles that are involved in creating and reading both mathematics and poetry . . .
Striving All My Life by Stephanie Strickland
Maxwell said: There is no more powerful way
to introduce knowledge to the mind than … as many different
ways as we can, wrenching the mind
Labels:
Oscar Wilde,
Stephanie Strickland,
V. S. Naipaul
Friday, August 10, 2018
Code switching -- and a Fib . . .
1 When
1 I
2 speak to
3 you, I wish
5 to be understood.
8 If I change my language for you
13 am I being thoughtful -- or phony and insincere?
My recent viewing of the film Sorry to Bother You -- in which a black telemarketer is helped to succeed by using a "white" voice -- has led me to think more about times that I, often unconsciously, switch my language for different listeners.
I grew up on a farm and learned early that farmer lingo was not welcomed in my chatter with town friends, and later, as a mathematics professor, I saved my academic and my mathematical vocabularies for "suitable" occasions and did not use them with my farm family or small-town friends. Indeed, much of my life I have completely avoided math vocabulary in almost all social situations. Mostly, I have thought of this "code-switching" as politeness, though I can see that it also conceals parts of myself.
This thinking about "different languages" has led me to look back to a posting from 2013 that involves a fine poem by June Jordan, "Problems of Translation: Problems of Language" that considers measurements on maps. What does three inches mean?
This link leads to more information
about poems structured by the Fibonacci numbers.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
American Arithmetic
Last Monday -- with visiting friends (Janet and Terry) from Pennsylvania -- I again visited the National Museum of the American Indian and this visit, rather than focusing on the contributions of a particular native culture, seemed to draw me to exhibits focused on numbers -- most notably on the figures related to Cherokee relocation via the Trail of Tears. This visit to the museum also allowed me to discover that a variety of books are for sale in the museum's second-floor gift shop and I found this collection of poetry which I have begun to read and love:
Within the collection, the poem "American Arithmetic" by Mojave poet Natalie Diaz quickly caught my eye -- and she has given me permission to offer it here:
American Arithmetic by Natalie Diaz
Native Americans make up less than
one percent of the population of America.
0.8 percent of 100 percent.
O, mine efficient country.
Edited by Heid E Erdrich (Graywolf Press, 2018)
Within the collection, the poem "American Arithmetic" by Mojave poet Natalie Diaz quickly caught my eye -- and she has given me permission to offer it here:
American Arithmetic by Natalie Diaz
Native Americans make up less than
one percent of the population of America.
0.8 percent of 100 percent.
O, mine efficient country.
Friday, August 3, 2018
Highlighting Poetry-Math Favorites
Looking back over the eight years of postings in this blog, I find several items that have stood out in their popularity. In case you have missed any of these, I list their titles (with links) below.
The favorite posting, by a large margin, is:
"Mathematical Limericks" posted on March 29, 2010,
"Loving a mathematician (Valentine's Day and . . .)" on February 12, 2011,
"Rhymes help to remember the digits of Pi" on September 2, 2010.
Two more-recent and popular postings are:
"The World is Round or Flat" on January 8, 2016,
"Celebrate Math-Women" on March 2, 2017.
The list of labels in the lower right-hand column of the blog gives the names of numerous mathematicians and topics that are featured in the blog -- and one may click on any label to retrieve the posts. Additionally, the blog's SEARCH feature may be used to locate postings on a particular topic of interest.
The favorite posting, by a large margin, is:
"Varieties of triangles -- by Guillevic" posted on October 13, 2010.
Three other postings fall into second place:"Mathematical Limericks" posted on March 29, 2010,
"Loving a mathematician (Valentine's Day and . . .)" on February 12, 2011,
"Rhymes help to remember the digits of Pi" on September 2, 2010.
Two more-recent and popular postings are:
"The World is Round or Flat" on January 8, 2016,
"Celebrate Math-Women" on March 2, 2017.
The list of labels in the lower right-hand column of the blog gives the names of numerous mathematicians and topics that are featured in the blog -- and one may click on any label to retrieve the posts. Additionally, the blog's SEARCH feature may be used to locate postings on a particular topic of interest.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Mathematics and Motherhood
The latest issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics focuses on the theme "Mathematics and Motherhood" -- go here to explore the Table of Contents. In that issue is my poem "Wondering" - found here.
Thank you, Mark Huber and Gizem Karaali,
for your editorship of this fine publication.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Sixty years is a long time . . ..
Yesterday in my Honda, in heavy traffic -- driving to my present home in Silver Spring, MD from a high school reunion weekend in Indiana, PA -- my thoughts began to shape a poem. Here, with thanks to Kathy Rend Armstrong and a host of other classmates who helped get a bunch of us together for a 60th reunion of the Indiana Joint High School Class of 1958. Here is my brief poem.
For readers unfamiliar with the Fibonacci numbers, here is a link to an explanation, and this link leads to other postings of Fibonacci poems in this blog.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Mathematics . . . an encrypted love song . . .
Australian poet Geoffrey Lehmann is also a writer of children's books and a tax lawyer. This mathy poem comes from his collection, Spring Forest (Faber & Faber, 1994); I found it in the anthology A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems about Science (editors--Maurice Riordan, Jon Turney; Faber & Faber, 2000) -- a collection introduced to me by Australian poet, Erica Jolly.
Not Yet Found by Geoffrey Lehmann
I chose the name Spring Forest
and I've yet to find the spring.
Some unfinished equations
are the closest I've come
to the puzzle of why I'm here.
Not Yet Found by Geoffrey Lehmann
I chose the name Spring Forest
and I've yet to find the spring.
Some unfinished equations
are the closest I've come
to the puzzle of why I'm here.
Monday, July 23, 2018
Poetry at BRIDGES 2018
The 2018 Brides Math-Arts Conference in Stockholm will take place this week -- July 25-29, 2018. Mathematician Sarah Glaz has been a leader in stimulating the poetry portion of this conference -- including organization of a reading to be held on Saturday, July 28 and a Poetry Anthology, of which a portion of the cover is shown below.
Here, from the anthology, is a sample of its finery -- a poem by mathematician, poet, and editor, Sarah Glaz:
![]() |
Poetry Anthology edited by Sarah Glaz, Tessellations Publishing |
Here, from the anthology, is a sample of its finery -- a poem by mathematician, poet, and editor, Sarah Glaz:
Friday, July 20, 2018
Counting insects, counting on them . . .
Recently I had the opportunity to vacation in southern Portugal with my older daughter and her family and there -- with clear, bright-blue skies and cooled-down night-time temperatures -- not only did we vacationers thrive but so do many insects. Their busy behavior reminded me of their presence on the childhood farm in Pennsylvania on which I grew up and their important role as partners in the agricultural process -- pollinating and irrigating and . . .
And so -- jet lagged yet continuing in my appreciation of the population-mathematics of insects -- I offer below a poem of bees by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), also found here. Another bee-poem by Dickinson posted back in August 2013 is available at this link.
The most important population (1746) by Emily Dickinson
The most important population
Unnoticed dwell,
They have a heaven each instant
Not any hell.
Their names, unless you know them,
'Twere useless tell.
Of bumble-bees and other nations
The grass is full.
An interesting Smithsonian article, "Bees May Understand Zero . . ." may be found here and the Washington POST has featured bees at this recent link and this earlier one.
And so -- jet lagged yet continuing in my appreciation of the population-mathematics of insects -- I offer below a poem of bees by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), also found here. Another bee-poem by Dickinson posted back in August 2013 is available at this link.
The most important population (1746) by Emily Dickinson
The most important population
Unnoticed dwell,
They have a heaven each instant
Not any hell.
Their names, unless you know them,
'Twere useless tell.
Of bumble-bees and other nations
The grass is full.
An interesting Smithsonian article, "Bees May Understand Zero . . ." may be found here and the Washington POST has featured bees at this recent link and this earlier one.
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
After Waking, Running
Today's posting is a villanelle about running -- and it is was written as a response to Theodore Roethke's villanelle, "The Waking" -- posted a few days ago on July 3. Moving quickly has been a part of my mental life (as I dart from rhymes to equations, looking for connections) and my physical life (as I try to burn enough energy that I may sit thoughtfully for a while). Runners are among those I admire; my heroes include Flo-Jo -- Florence Delores Griffith-Joyner (1959-98), whose 1988 records still stand, making her "the fastest woman in the world" -- and Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (1929-2018) -- whom I remember from a lunchtime news broadcast in 1954 when I was a girl on a farm in Pennsylvania and he ran the first sub-4 minute mile in Oxford, England.
A villanelle has a rather complex structure -- stated somewhat simply, it is a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes in its five stanzas and two lines that each are repeated (precisely or approximately) four times. These repetitions can lead to an interesting back-and-forth in the development of images and ideas. Although not about mathematics, this villanelle may, it seems to me, say a bit about mathematicians.
Running
My sleep is brief. I rise to run again,
to flee the doubts that catch me when I'm still.
I live by going faster than I can.
A villanelle has a rather complex structure -- stated somewhat simply, it is a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes in its five stanzas and two lines that each are repeated (precisely or approximately) four times. These repetitions can lead to an interesting back-and-forth in the development of images and ideas. Although not about mathematics, this villanelle may, it seems to me, say a bit about mathematicians.
Running
Response (by JoAnne Growney) to “The Waking” by Theodore Roethke
My sleep is brief. I rise to run again,
to flee the doubts that catch me when I'm still.
I live by going faster than I can.
Monday, July 9, 2018
What does MEAN mean?
Visual poetry by Mathemusician Larry Lesser:
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These diagrams are part of a paper by L.M. Lesser found here. |
Thursday, July 5, 2018
A proof in limericks
The word "transcendental" is an adjective that refers to an abstract or supernatural noun. In mathematics, the term's meaning is specified more precisely -- a transcendental number is one that cannot be a root of any algebraic equation with rational numbers as coefficients. The number π (ratio of the length of the circumference of a circle to its diameter) and the number e (base for the system of natural logarithms) are the best known examples of transcendental numbers.
Retired Arkansas law professor (and former math teacher) Robert Laurence has fun with this pair of transcendentals using limerick stanzas. Get out your pencil and graph paper -- and enjoy puzzling through his rhymes.
Retired Arkansas law professor (and former math teacher) Robert Laurence has fun with this pair of transcendentals using limerick stanzas. Get out your pencil and graph paper -- and enjoy puzzling through his rhymes.
A
Transcendental Proof in Six Stanzas
by Robert
Laurence ©
2018
They
are transcendent you see:
eπ
and πe.
The
prize you’ll win when,
With
pencil or pen,
You
prove which is smaller to me.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Waking -- to mathematics, to poetry
Bridges-Math-Arts-Conferences -- Places to make connections!
Yesterday I posted a bit of information about POETRY at the 2018 Bridges Conference.
At the 2017 conference in Waterloo, Canada -- via a dramatic presentation -- I met Peter Taylor
and some of his math-poetry ideas are featured below.
Yesterday I posted a bit of information about POETRY at the 2018 Bridges Conference.
At the 2017 conference in Waterloo, Canada -- via a dramatic presentation -- I met Peter Taylor
and some of his math-poetry ideas are featured below.
One of my high school literature texts included "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) and I remember it particularly because its author was alive and its subject matter relevant to the experiences of those of us in rural Pennsylvania who were assigned to read it. Not all of Roethke's poems are favorites -- one that I have wrestled with is "The Waking" -- which I recently found in a lecture entitled "Mathematics and Poetry," -- prepared and delivered by Professor Peter Taylor of Queens University (and available here). In that lecture, Taylor's remarks range widely. For example, he considers the equation
24 = 42
and suggests it as a poem.Both mathematics and poetry challenge us with difficult ideas -- and Taylor wonders if we might see more similarity between the two if we did not place higher economic value on mathematics.
Roethke's poem, "The Waking," is a villanelle -- a poem of 19 lines with two lines repeated four times, each time in a new context -- and this structure helps create the vivid feeling of waking to new knowing. Taylor challenges us: as teachers, as students -- of mathematics, of poetry -- we need to be WAKING. Roethke's poem explores the complexity of that process.
Monday, July 2, 2018
BRIDGES, 2018 -- math-art-poetry -- in Stockholm
During each summer since 1998, mathematicians and visual artists, poets and musicians, have gotten together at a BRIDGES conference to celebrate the overlapping connections of their arts. This years conference, BRIDGES 2018, will be held July 25-59 in Stockholm. As she has done in several previous years, mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz has organized a poetry reading as part of that event; this link leads to information about the participating poets. Available for purchase, a poetry anthology with work from past and present Bridges poets. The small poem offered below is one that is featured in the anthology.
is good numbers—
the length of a furrow,
the count of years,
the depth of a broken heart,
the cost of camouflage,
the volume of tears.
"Good Fortune" also is found in my collection, Red Has No Reason (Plain View Press, 2010).
Good Fortune by JoAnne Growney
is good numbers—
the length of a furrow,
the count of years,
the depth of a broken heart,
the cost of camouflage,
the volume of tears.
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