Celebration is everywhere (including here in The New Yorker ) -- mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck has recently won the Abel prize for her revolutionary work: " . . . pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry, and mathematical physics."
Here (pulled from The New Yorker article also cited above) are some of Uhlenbeck's poetic words about women in mathematics:
It's really hard for me to describe
to people who are not somewhat near me in age
what it was like for women then ... and it was only
because of the women's movement and books like
Friday, March 29, 2019
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Poetry-Mathematics--at Poets House--March 28
Tomorrow evening, March 28, 7 PM at Poets House in NYC, Emily Grosholz, poet and philosopher of mathematics, will discuss her new book, Great Circles: The Transits of Mathematics and Poetry, (Springer, 2018). Her book thoughtfully links the way poets use mathematical entities and mathematicians use poetic “figures of thought.” To illustrate, here are the opening stanzas of Grozholz's poem "Holding Pattern" -- a villanelle that she offers in her consideration (Chapter 7) of periodicity and symmetry.
from Holding Pattern by Emily Rolfe Grosholz
We can't remember half of what we know.
They hug each other and then turn away.
One thinks in silence, never let me go.
The sky above the airport glints with snow
That melts beneath the laws it must obey.
We can't remember half of what we know.
. . .
For the complete poem, go to Chapter 7 pages 115-116 of Great Circles or to Grosholz's collection, The Stars of Earth (Word Galaxy, 2017).
From a Greek Nobelist . . .
Poet Odysseus Elytis (1911-1996) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979. At some time I purchased a copy of The Collected Poems of Odysseus Elytis (translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nicos Sarris, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) and recently, during a reorganization of my bookshelves, have picked it up again. His poetry is not easy for me to read but I have been drawn to explore the collection, Marie Nephele, which Carson's introduction tells us was more than fifteen years in the writing. It is "arranged in three sections of twice seven poems with an introductory and closing poem and two intermediary songs ... ." Half of the poems are in the voice of a youthful Maria and half in the voice of the poet, "the Antiphonist."
Throughout his verse, Elytis is not shy about using mathematical terminology. Some samples:
From "The Song of Maria Nepele":
SUPERSTITION BROUGHT TO A MATHEMATICAL CLARITY WOULD HELP US PERCEIVE THE DEEPER STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD.
Throughout his verse, Elytis is not shy about using mathematical terminology. Some samples:
From "The Song of Maria Nepele":
SUPERSTITION BROUGHT TO A MATHEMATICAL CLARITY WOULD HELP US PERCEIVE THE DEEPER STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD.
Monday, March 25, 2019
Give HER your support
In school, many
gifted math girls.
Later, so few
famed math women!
Thank you to Math Horizons (edited by Dave Richeson) for recent publication of "Give HER Your Support" -- a collection of syllable-square stanzas (one of which is given above) that focus on math-women. Online access to the article is available here -- and this link leads to a PDF of the article that I have downloaded and made available from my website.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
How to Triumph Like a Girl -- Learn to Swagger!!!
A recent article in the Washington Post cited the discrimination faced by women in economics. In response, I can't resist offering Ada Limon's poem, "How to Triumph Like a Girl" -- its mathematical connections include a defiant spirit and two numbers. Let us begin to win!
I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up! . . .
Read the rest here at Poets.org.
Monday, March 18, 2019
Looking back . . . titles, links to previous posts
For your browsing pleasure,here are titles and links to previous blog postings. Below are listed linked-titles of posts from 2018 and up-to now in 2019 and here is a link to a list of titles and links for posts prior to 2018.
- March 13 An Interview of/by a Mathy Poet
- March 11 Celebrate Pi-Day on 3.14
- March 6 Celebrate Math-Women with Poems!
- March 4 Math in 17 Syllables
- Solving for X, Searching for LIFE
- Stories of Black Mathematicians (event postponed)
- All Numbers are Interesting . . .
- George Washington, cherry tree, lifespan . . .
- Musical sounds of math words -- in a CENTO
- If 2017 was a poem title . . .
- Mathematics and Valentine's Day
- Speed flunking math . . . NO, NO!
- Quantum Lyrics -- Poems
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
An Interview of/by a Mathy Poet
University of Connecticut mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz has interviewed me on behalf of the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts. The article Sarah wrote is now available online -- but the online version requires a costly subscription. I offer instead this link to a pdf file of her "Artist Interview: JoAnne Growney." The article gives some of my personal and mathematical history -- growing up on a farm, studying mathematics because of a scholarship, loving both poetry and math and eventually finding time to follow both interests and see their connections. And it includes some poems. I invite you to follow this link and browse a bit!
Thank you, Sarah!
Monday, March 11, 2019
Celebrate Pi-Day on 3.14
If you are in the Washington, DC area you are cordially invited to a poetry-math program at The Writer's Center on Thursday evening, March 14, at 7 PM-- come and enjoy exploring connections between POETRY and PI.
This link leads to earlier posts in this blog that celebrate PI.
. . . And, when you can find time . . .
Say a text, a smart statement, in Pilish!
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Celebrate Math-Women with Poems!
March is Women's History Month!
March 8 is International Women's Day!
March 8 is International Women's Day!
and here in this blog we celebrate math-women with poems!
Herein appear lots of poems featuring women in math and the SEARCH box in the right-column may help you find them. To find a list of useful search terms, scroll down the right-hand column. For example, here is a link to a selection of poems found using the pair of search terms "women equal." AND, here are links to several poems to get you 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.
Monday, March 4, 2019
Math in 17 Syllables
Counting syllables is an aspect of poetry that often interests math-people. -- and when Haiku are composed in English, these three-line poems mostly obey the 5-7-5 syllable counts. Here is a sample from Melbourne mathematician Daniel Mathews. Lots more of Mathews' Haiku are found here.
During the years of this blog, lots of different entries have celebrated the mathy Haiku -- this link leads to the results of a blog-SEARCH using "Haiku."
Maths haikus are hard
All the words are much too big
Like homeomorphic.
During the years of this blog, lots of different entries have celebrated the mathy Haiku -- this link leads to the results of a blog-SEARCH using "Haiku."
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Solving for X, Searching for LIFE
In January of this year I had the pleasure of attending a poetry reading featuring Linda Pastan and Le Hinton -- Linda Pastan's mathy poem "Algebra" is posted here and a blog SEARCH using her name can find other gems. Pennsylvania poet Le Hinton's poem, "Baseball," appears in a 2015 posting at this link and below I offer his "Solving for X."
Solving for X by Le Hinton
Because your father was a teacher,
he set up a blackboard to teach you math.
You were four, almost five, learning the difference
between more and less. How to add. When to subtract. How
to savor a piece of candy when you got an answer exactly right.
Solving for X by Le Hinton
Because your father was a teacher,
he set up a blackboard to teach you math.
You were four, almost five, learning the difference
between more and less. How to add. When to subtract. How
to savor a piece of candy when you got an answer exactly right.
Monday, February 25, 2019
Stories of Black Mathematicians (event postponed)
Dr. Scott Williams is a mathematician, poet, and artist blacksmith and, alas, illness will prevent him from being the featured speaker at the MAA Carriage House on Tuesday, February 26. Rescheduling is planned!
Most of Dr. Williams' career was spent as a research mathematician at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo. His interest in other black mathematicians led him to create the important website Mathematicians of the African Diaspora.” One of my favorites of his poems ("The Nine-Sided Diamond,") is dedicated to his mother -- who also was a mathematician.
Dr. Williams' poem, "An 1883 Faery Tale" (about the construction of the Cantor set) recently appeared in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (January 2019 issue) and he has given me permission also to include it here:
An 1883 Faery Tale by Scott W. Williams
Once there was a king whose daughter was beautiful.
He loved her very deeply and he wished to have more.
Most of Dr. Williams' career was spent as a research mathematician at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo. His interest in other black mathematicians led him to create the important website Mathematicians of the African Diaspora.” One of my favorites of his poems ("The Nine-Sided Diamond,") is dedicated to his mother -- who also was a mathematician.
Dr. Williams' poem, "An 1883 Faery Tale" (about the construction of the Cantor set) recently appeared in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (January 2019 issue) and he has given me permission also to include it here:
An 1883 Faery Tale by Scott W. Williams
Once there was a king whose daughter was beautiful.
He loved her very deeply and he wished to have more.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
All Numbers are Interesting . . .
For math poetry and math art and a host of enticements to love math if you don't already, I recommend a visit to Grant Sanderson's website 3blue1brown. Here are the opening stanzas of one of his fascinating poems:
Moser's Circle Problem
Take two points on a circle,
and draw a line straight through.
The space that was encircled
is divided into two.
To these points add a third one,
which gives us two more chords.
The space through which these lines run
has been fissured into four.
. . .
Moser's Circle Problem
Take two points on a circle,
and draw a line straight through.
The space that was encircled
is divided into two.
To these points add a third one,
which gives us two more chords.
The space through which these lines run
has been fissured into four.
. . .
And here is a link to "All Numbers are Interesting."
Monday, February 18, 2019
George Washington, cherry tree, lifespan . . .
Today in the US we celebrate Presidents' Day -- including the birthday of George Washington (on February 22, 1732). In the 1970s, telling stories to my young children, I became fascinated by the allegations that the story of George Washington's admission that he cut down a cherry tree was a story invented after our first President's death (in 1799). (See The life of George Washington : with curious anecdotes, equally honourable to himself and exemplary to his young countrymen by M. L Weems). Our lives are too short! -- expressed somewhat gloomily in the following life-counting stanza by Isaac Watts (1674-1748).
OUR days, alas ! our mortal days,
Are short and wretched too !
" Evil and few !" the Patriarch says,
And well the Patriarch knew !
'Tis but at best, a narrow bound,
That Heaven allots to men ;
And pains and sins run through the round,
Of three-score years and ten !
OUR days, alas ! our mortal days,
Are short and wretched too !
" Evil and few !" the Patriarch says,
And well the Patriarch knew !
'Tis but at best, a narrow bound,
That Heaven allots to men ;
And pains and sins run through the round,
Of three-score years and ten !
Friday, February 15, 2019
Musical sounds of math words -- in a CENTO
A cento is a literary work formed by assembling
words or phrases from other writers.
As a math-person, I love to hear the melodic rhythm of certain multi-syllabic mathematical terms. And so I have looked at a list of dissertation-titles of twentieth century female mathematicians -- and I have chosen words from these titles that sounded lovely to me. Here is my cento poem; read it ALOUD and enjoy the sounds.
"Celebrating Dissertations"
The math-women whose titles have been sampled here are:
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
If 2017 was a poem title . . .
On my shelf is a 2018 anthology entitled Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism and, in its Table of Contents, I am particularly drawn to the title that includes a prime number: "If 2017 was a poem title" by Mahogany L. Browne. Here is a provocative stanza from that poem:
A Math Problem
If 1 woman got a 7 Mac 11
& 2 heaters for the beemer
How many Congress seats will NRA lose?
How many votes will it take for a sexual predator
to lift the White House off her feet?
For more by this poet, here is a link to Black Girl Magic: a Poem by Mahogany L. Browne (Roaring Book Press, 2018).
A Math Problem
If 1 woman got a 7 Mac 11
& 2 heaters for the beemer
How many Congress seats will NRA lose?
How many votes will it take for a sexual predator
to lift the White House off her feet?
For more by this poet, here is a link to Black Girl Magic: a Poem by Mahogany L. Browne (Roaring Book Press, 2018).
Friday, February 8, 2019
Mathematics and Valentine's Day
On February 12, 2011, this blog first offered poetry to celebrate Valentine's Day -- and there presented Hannah Stein's poem, "Loving a Mathematician." Please follow this link and enjoy!
A perfect way for math-fans to celebrate Valentine's Day is with some "poems of love and mathematics." Many such poems have been collected in the anthology, Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics (AK Peters/CRC Pres, 2008), edited by Sarah Glaz and me. One of the classics included therein is as a long-loved sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) -- here are its opening lines:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach . . .
Make time to celebrate love and mathematics! To find more verses SEARCH this blog using the term Valentine and scroll down through the variety of posts.
A perfect way for math-fans to celebrate Valentine's Day is with some "poems of love and mathematics." Many such poems have been collected in the anthology, Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics (AK Peters/CRC Pres, 2008), edited by Sarah Glaz and me. One of the classics included therein is as a long-loved sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) -- here are its opening lines:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach . . .
Make time to celebrate love and mathematics! To find more verses SEARCH this blog using the term Valentine and scroll down through the variety of posts.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Speed flunking math . . . NO, NO!
Found online . . . "Scab Maids on Speed" . . . reminding me once again the being bad at math continues to be a more popular position (especially for girls) than being good at it. Here is the opening stanza of the poem by Maggie Estep (1963-2014), a leading lady of slam poetry -- and found at PoetrySoup.
Scab Maids On Speed by Maggie Estep
My first job was when I was about 15.
I had met
a girl named Hope who became my best friend.
Hope and I were flunking math
class so we became speed freaks.
This honed our algebra skills and we quickly
became whiz kids.
For about 5 minutes.
Then, our brains started to fry
and we were just teenage speed freaks.
Then, we decided to to seek gainful employment. . . .
Not poetry, but one of the websites I enjoy is The Math Comic Strips -- a site I first discovered a few months ago via this "Frank and Ernest" strip about making a difference. Enjoy!
Scab Maids On Speed by Maggie Estep
My first job was when I was about 15.
I had met
a girl named Hope who became my best friend.
Hope and I were flunking math
class so we became speed freaks.
This honed our algebra skills and we quickly
became whiz kids.
For about 5 minutes.
Then, our brains started to fry
and we were just teenage speed freaks.
Then, we decided to to seek gainful employment. . . .
Not poetry, but one of the websites I enjoy is The Math Comic Strips -- a site I first discovered a few months ago via this "Frank and Ernest" strip about making a difference. Enjoy!
Monday, February 4, 2019
Quantum Lyrics -- Poems
Quantum Lyrics (W.W.Norton, 2009) is the title of a poetry collection by A. Van Jordan in which the poet celebrates scientists -- including Feynman and Einstein -- and makes vivid use of mathematical and scientific terminology in his poems; here are samples from that collection:
from Richard P. Feynman Lecture: Broken Symmetries
from Richard P. Feynman Lecture: Broken Symmetries
by A. Van Jordan
Symmetry walks between two worlds. To the hands it tries to touch us from either side; to the feet it simply wants us not to stumble but to saunter. ... We believe that love is equal to hate but nothing is perfectly symmetric. ... Why, for example, does the earth orbit elliptically, as if these old hands had drawn the path, instead of following an elegant circle? Thursday, January 31, 2019
What can be proven . . .
Two weeks ago poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019) died and her passing has caused me to turn again to her work. In "I Looked Up" -- from her 1994 collection, White Pine -- I have found and am reflecting on this line.
What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.
What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Mathy Limericks
Many mathy poets enjoy the challenge of satisfying (or almost-satisfying) the prescribed rhythm and rhyme schemes for the five-line poem-form called a limerick. Below are five limerick-creations from Kate Jones, poet and part of Kadon Enterprises, creator of a host of mathematical game puzzles. (AND this link leads to several earlier postings in this blog that also present verses in limerick form.)
Limericks by Kate Jones
There once was an artist supreme
Whose geometry had a rare scheme.
Tessellations and creatures
And impossible features. . .
MC Escher created an infinite dream.
Limericks by Kate Jones
There once was an artist supreme
Whose geometry had a rare scheme.
Tessellations and creatures
And impossible features. . .
MC Escher created an infinite dream.
Monday, January 28, 2019
2019 AMS Prize-Winning Math Poems
Last fall the American Mathematical Society held a math-poetry contest for Maryland students and the winners were announced and celebrated in Baltimore last Saturday. Two of the winners, Tina Xia and Brooke Johnston, have given me permission to offer their poems here!
Math is Me by Brooke Johnston, Notre Dame Preparatory School
Math can inspire.
Math can inquire.
Math does not require those who know
but those who understand.
Math is me.
A Love Letter to My X by Tina Xia, Walt Whitman High School
To wonder is to dream, said one of the greats--
To meddle is to be irrational. Love, like
Many things, is fickle and feckless. Ask mother:
She would agree. And people will tell you to find
X until you die, but man, you need to move on.
I believe in the power of both math and love,
Math is Me by Brooke Johnston, Notre Dame Preparatory School
Math can inspire.
Math can inquire.
Math does not require those who know
but those who understand.
Math is me.
A Love Letter to My X by Tina Xia, Walt Whitman High School
To wonder is to dream, said one of the greats--
To meddle is to be irrational. Love, like
Many things, is fickle and feckless. Ask mother:
She would agree. And people will tell you to find
X until you die, but man, you need to move on.
I believe in the power of both math and love,
Labels:
Brooke Johnston,
Kelin Torres-Rodas,
Tina Xia
Thursday, January 24, 2019
A Multi-Author Poem Celebrating Math-People
At the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore last Friday evening, the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (JHM) and SIGMAA-ARTS sponsored a poetry reading.
Mathematicians are meeting today—
ideas unfold in space, time, and hearts.
Math is the language of everyone
Any part of everything began as a sum.
Moderated by Gizem Karaali, the pre-reregistered participants included
Lawrence M. Lesser, Sarah Glaz, Ben Orlin, Rachel Levy, Luise Kappe,
Brooke C. Johnston, Douglas Norton, Claudia Gary, JoAnne Growney
In addition to poems by participants registered in advance, the event included a "crowd-sourced" poem. Each person attending was invited to submit two lines of poetry about math-people -- and the pairs of lines were put together into a poem that I offer below. MANY THANKS to these participants who gave us lines.
Order of contributors (2 lines each): David Reimann, Maru Colbert, Greg Coxson,
David Flesner, Nancy Johnston, Kate Jones, Hunter Johnston, Debra Bordeau (4 lines),
Luise Kappe (in German—with translation at end), Margaret Kepner, Thomas Atkinson,
Brooke Johnston, Andrew Johnston, Ximena Catpillan, Bronna Butler, Courtney Hauf,
JoAnne Growney, Doug Norton, Sean Owen, Eric Marland
Sending THANK-YOU to all of the authors,
I present below our poem, "We Love Mathematics."
We Love Mathematics
ideas unfold in space, time, and hearts.
Math is the language of everyone
Any part of everything began as a sum.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
"Math and Self" -- a visual poem
One of the great pleasures of attending mathematics meetings in Baltimore last week was meeting old friends. One of these, Gabriel Prajitura, a mathematician at SUNY Brockport, is also a poet and a person with whom I have worked on translation of poetry by Romanian poet Nichita Stanescu. Gabi has shared with me "Math and Self," one of his visual poems:
.
Here is a link to several earlier postings in this blog featuring translations by Gabi and me of mathy poetry by Nichita Stanescu.
.
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"Math and Self" by Gabriel Prajitura |
Monday, January 21, 2019
A poetry equation . . . .
My recent attendance (January 16-19) at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore has resulted in a pile of math-poetry items to sort and organize for offering here in my blog. While that sorting happens, here is an idea to ponder -- found in a recent article about Brooklyn-based poet and teacher Taylor Mali -- this thoughtful quote:
"... a metaphor is an equation between two words.”
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
A Perfect Number
One of the things I love to find in a poem is the surprise of a double meaning -- especially involving a mathematical term such as "group" or "zero" or "identity." The following poem of mine aims to offer that surprise -- as it celebrates actor-inventor Hedy Lamarr while playing with the meanings of "perfect."
Looking
for Mathematics in Hedy Lamarr by JoAnne Growney
All my six husbands married me for different reasons.
---Hedy Lamarr
Perhaps Hedy Lamarr married so often because six
is a perfect number – the sum of all its proper
divisors, “proper” meaning “less than six,”
“divisor” meaning “a counting number
that divides and leaves
no remainder.”
After a perfect number of husbands, there is no
remainder. Six is the smallest perfect
number, the next is twenty-eight.
And twenty-eight
is too many
husbands.
Today I head to the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore
including a Poetry Reading Friday, January 18, 7 PM
-- hope to see you there!
Monday, January 14, 2019
Poems that Celebrate Mathematicians
Recently I received from John Golden (blogger at mathhombre.blogspot.com and math professor at Michigan's Grand Valley State University, this link to a collection of poems developed by students Ellen Audia and Connor Dudas as their senior project for degrees in Mathematics from Grand Valley State University. On page 6, we have their poem about Archimedes:
Archimedes
Everyone knows
The great Archimedes
One of the leading scientists
Of the classical antiquity
The area of a circle
Equals pi r squared
Archimedes also discovered
The volume of a sphere
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Mathematical motherhood -- keeping count
The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, with new issues coming twice a year, late in January and July, is a wonderful resource. Their latest issue (July 2018) was themed "Mathematics and Motherhood" and is an example of their wonderful support for expanding our images of mathematicians to recognize the vital contributions of women.
From that issue, here are opening stanzas of a poem by Nevada scientist and mathematician Marylesa Howard -- lines that offer a mathematical description of the constant adjustments of parenthood. Several decades ago, when I was a math professor and parent of young children, I needed to keep details of parenting away from my profession -- a divided life. I'm glad things are different now.
From that issue, here are opening stanzas of a poem by Nevada scientist and mathematician Marylesa Howard -- lines that offer a mathematical description of the constant adjustments of parenthood. Several decades ago, when I was a math professor and parent of young children, I needed to keep details of parenting away from my profession -- a divided life. I'm glad things are different now.
Friday, January 4, 2019
A poem . . . like a mathematical proof . . .
Mathematician-Poet Sarah Glaz has been active in bringing poetry events to the annual summer Math-Arts conference Bridges -- and she has given me permission to include this poem which appears in the Bridges 2018 Poetry Anthology and in her wonderful recent collection Ode to Numbers (Antrim House, 2017).
Like a Mathematical Proof by Sarah Glaz
A poem courses through me
like a mathematical proof,
arriving whole from nowhere,
from a distant galaxy of thought.
Like a Mathematical Proof by Sarah Glaz
A poem courses through me
like a mathematical proof,
arriving whole from nowhere,
from a distant galaxy of thought.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Celebrate a Science Woman -- and offer friendship!
Last weekend's Washington Post used the headline
When Nancy Grace Roman requested permission
to take a second algebra course in high school,
the teacher demanded to know, "what lady
would take mathematics instead of Latin?"
But Roman persisted in the challenging studies and was not dissuaded by biases. The obituary quotes an interview from Science magazine in which she said:
Astronomer celebrated as the 'mother' of the Hubble Space Telescope
for the obituary of Nancy Grace Roman. It opens with this sentence:When Nancy Grace Roman requested permission
to take a second algebra course in high school,
the teacher demanded to know, "what lady
would take mathematics instead of Latin?"
But Roman persisted in the challenging studies and was not dissuaded by biases. The obituary quotes an interview from Science magazine in which she said:
Monday, December 31, 2018
Celebrating winter with a Fibonacci poem
Another year ends . . . may 2019 bring good numbers for us all!
Counting on a December morning by JoAnne Growney
one chickadee, one squirrel
my own two feet left-right left-right on the soft track
around the soccer field three blocks from my home
sparkling bright against grey sky five crows alight
in the lacy spread of fractal branches of eight bare locust trees
when I am early morning’s first human to arrive at Shepherd Park
when I am first and the wind is gentle and the temperature
is not bitter cold
dozens of robins hop and flutter near me
as I plod some thirteen laps
smiling, maybe losing count
and loving my Fibonacci world
Thanks to mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz who has included this poem
Thursday, December 27, 2018
The square root of tomorrow . . .
The surprise of a mathy poem came into my email-box at 6 AM this morning, delivered as "Poem-of-the-Day" from the wonderful website, poets.org. The complete title of this poem by California poet giovanni singleton is "last cucumber from the garden (in conversation w/ julie ezelle patton)" and in a "More" link beside the posting of the poem, the author explains how the title relates to the mathy poem that moves from groundedness to ecstasy. Below are the opening lines . .. go here for the rest.
From " last cucumber from the garden . . . " |
Thursday, December 20, 2018
A Syllable-Snowball of Holiday Wishesl
o
This
Christmas
let us strive
to multiply
our understanding
of different neighbors --
each day add deeds of kindness,
subtract some carbon emissions,
integrate our commitments with love.
For more about snowball-poems, visit this prior blog-posting. For lots of background about poetry-constraints and the organization (OULIPO) that has popularized them, here is a link to Wikipedia's summary.
Monday, December 17, 2018
Examining boundaries for Math-Women
Mathematician Ursula Whitcher is a versatile and interesting person -- and currently an editor for the American Mathematical Society's Mathematical Reviews. It was my pleasure to meet and work with her at a conference on "Creative Writing in Mathematics . . ." in Banff in 2016. Like me, Whitcher writes some poetry -- and here is one of her poems -- this one recognizing the isolation of math-woman Sophie Germain.
Boundary Conditions by Ursula Whitcher
Royal Academy of Science, Paris, 1823
This is her moment of triumph:
a seat at the center, a node.
Mademoiselle Germain sits silent,
head upright, chaperoned.
Academy members rise
or dip; the speaker drones.
Boundary Conditions by Ursula Whitcher
Royal Academy of Science, Paris, 1823
This is her moment of triumph:
a seat at the center, a node.
Mademoiselle Germain sits silent,
head upright, chaperoned.
Academy members rise
or dip; the speaker drones.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Defending Poetry . . . .
With sadness I learned yesterday of the death of poet Meena Alexander (1951-2018) -- not only a fine poet but also one of my treasured teachers during my MFA studies at Hunter a bunch of years ago. As I browsed the works of Alexander online I found here in World Literature Today her essay "What Use Is Poetry?" which includes reference to Shelley's "In Defence of Poetry."
Shelley's words led me to think of mathematics; perhaps you will, too:
“It creates for us a being within our being.
It makes us inhabitants of a world to which
the familiar world is a chaos. It reproduces
the common universe of which we are portions and percipients,
and it purges from our inward sight the film of familiarity
which obscures from us the wonder of our being.”
Shelley's words led me to think of mathematics; perhaps you will, too:
“It creates for us a being within our being.
It makes us inhabitants of a world to which
the familiar world is a chaos. It reproduces
the common universe of which we are portions and percipients,
and it purges from our inward sight the film of familiarity
which obscures from us the wonder of our being.”
Monday, December 10, 2018
The Heart's Arithmetic
For me, the Christmas holiday season is a time for family gathering and a treasured time for that reason. Today my thoughts turn to one of my favorite poems of family and mathematics -- a poem by much-too-soon-departed poet Wilmer Mills (1969-2011), a poem first published in Poetry and also also found here at the Poetry Foundation website.
An Equation for My Children by Wilmer Mills
It may be esoteric and perverse
That I consult Pythagoras to hear
A music tuning in the universe.
My interest in his math of star and sphere
Has triggered theorems too far-fetched to solve.
An Equation for My Children by Wilmer Mills
It may be esoteric and perverse
That I consult Pythagoras to hear
A music tuning in the universe.
My interest in his math of star and sphere
Has triggered theorems too far-fetched to solve.
Friday, December 7, 2018
United by ice cream -- the sphere and cone
During recent months I have been part of an online course that has helped me and a dozen others to learn steps for editing Wikipedia -- with the goal that we will be able to add biographies of "Women in Science and Mathematics" to that enormous online encyclopedia (in which, currently, less than 18% of the biographies feature women). The course has led me to SEARCH Wikipedia using names of women I admire -- and it will be my intent to work toward addition of those missing. One such woman -- a mathematics PhD, a talented teacher, a poet -- is Katharine O'Brien (1905-1986). I introduce her below with one of her mathy poems (first published in The Mathematics Teacher in 1968).
Einstein and the Ice Cream Cone by Katharine O'Brien
His first day at Princeton, the legend goes,
he went for a stroll (in his rumpled clothes).
He entered a coffee shop -- moment of doubt --
then climbed on a stool and looked about.
Beside him, a frosh, likewise strange and alone,
consoling himself with an ice cream cone.
Einstein and the Ice Cream Cone by Katharine O'Brien
His first day at Princeton, the legend goes,
he went for a stroll (in his rumpled clothes).
He entered a coffee shop -- moment of doubt --
then climbed on a stool and looked about.
Beside him, a frosh, likewise strange and alone,
consoling himself with an ice cream cone.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
By Claude Shannon -- a Poem for Rubik's Cube
Below I present the opening lines of an 80-line (plus footnotes) poetic creation by Claude Shannon (1916-2001). A mathematician, engineer and cryptographer, Shannon is often called "the father of information theory." My own acquaintance with Shannon's work came through the topic of error-correction codes. Shannon's poem on the Rubik Cube was first published here in a Scientific American blog posting by John Horgan.
A Rubric on Rubik Cubics (1) by Claude Shannon
Strange imports come from Hungary:
Count Dracula, and ZsaZsa G.,
Now Erno Rubik's Magic Cube
For PhD or country rube.
This fiendish clever engineer
Entrapped the music of the sphere.
A Rubric on Rubik Cubics (1) by Claude Shannon
Strange imports come from Hungary:
Count Dracula, and ZsaZsa G.,
Now Erno Rubik's Magic Cube
For PhD or country rube.
This fiendish clever engineer
Entrapped the music of the sphere.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Chaos theory -- portrayed in poetry
A poem I have long loved is "Chaos Theory" by poet (and fiction writer and scholar) Ronald Wallace -- and he has given me permission to offer it below.
Chaos Theory by Ronald Wallace
1. Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
and so on to the ultimate loss—a battle,
a world. In other words, the breeze
from this butterfly's golden wings
could fan a tsunami in Indonesia
or send a small chill across the neck
of an old love about to collapse in Kansas
in an alcoholic stupor—her last.
Everything is connected. Blame it on
the butterfly, if you will. Or the gesture
thirty years ago, the glance across
the ninth-grade auditorium floor,
Chaos Theory by Ronald Wallace
1. Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
and so on to the ultimate loss—a battle,
a world. In other words, the breeze
from this butterfly's golden wings
could fan a tsunami in Indonesia
or send a small chill across the neck
of an old love about to collapse in Kansas
in an alcoholic stupor—her last.
Everything is connected. Blame it on
the butterfly, if you will. Or the gesture
thirty years ago, the glance across
the ninth-grade auditorium floor,
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Counting words with the Fibonacci numbers . . .
Today a poem by New York poet, Larissa Shmailo,
that explores aging with word-counts that match the Fibonacci numbers.
none
1(one)
1(ego)
two (I)
I 2 threeeeeeeeee
5 school, ruled 2 three
Monday, November 26, 2018
Marriage in Quantum Mechanics
Sometimes mathematical concepts also bring to mind phenomena in our everyday lives -- as in this poem by New Jersey poet Charlotte Mandel; I hope you enjoy, as I did, Mandel's play with ideas and imagery.
In Quantum Mechanics, Marriage Is by Charlotte Mandel
discontinuous
as rain
chips into the lake,
each linear strike
sets another circle in the jostle
as currents
succeed.
In Quantum Mechanics, Marriage Is by Charlotte Mandel
discontinuous
as rain
chips into the lake,
each linear strike
sets another circle in the jostle
as currents
succeed.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Thankful for . ..
Now
I
give thanks --
for your grace
and empathy, for
mathematics and poetry.
When I offer a poetry class to people new to writing, often the first poem I ask them to write is a Fib -- I give them a topic (such as "winter" or "Thanksgiving" or "gardening" or . . .) and ask them to write lines whose syllable-counts match the first six Fibonacci numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. Time and again these writers are pleased with the way that the numerical constraints shape their words into thoughtful meaning.
This posting, "Poems with Fibonacci Number Patterns" offers more samples. The six-line form (called a Fib and illustrated above) was invented in 2006 by Gregory Pincus.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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