BRIDGES, an annual conference that celebrates connections between mathematics and the arts, will be held this year in Halifax Nova Scotia, July 27-31. (Conference information available at this link.) A poetry reading is one of the special event at BRIDGES and Sarah Glaz, retired math professor and poet, is one of the chief organizers of the event. Here at her University of Connecticut website, Glaz has posted information about the July 30 reading along with bios and sample poems from each of the poets. For poets not part of this early registration, an Open Mic will be available (if interested, contact Glaz -- contact information is available here at her website.)
Here is a CENTO I have composed using a line of poetry from each of the sample poems (found online at this link) by the 2023 BRIDGES poets:
Recently I have learned (from poet and Capillano University professor Lisa Lajeunesse -- who enjoys linking mathematics and the arts) of the work of Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. Author of more than a dozen poetry collections and recipient of five honorary degrees, Crozier is versatile and widely read. Here is one of her fascinating poems:
God of ARITHMETIC by Lorna Crozier
Most children no longer know who this god is. For one thing,
he uses chalk as if time does everything but erase. In aban-
doned country schools, he prints columns of numbers on the
blackboards. There are no pupils to add them up and call
out the answers though his pockets burn with stars to give
away. His worshippers, in danger of dying out, recite the
time tables like Hail Marys under their breath to prove their
minds are still okay. No matter what they’ve lost—the word
geranium, the birthdates of their children—they can do their
sums. He wanted his only commandment to be included on
the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain, but the
others, bartering for space, thought it was only about arithme-
tic and left it out. It would have changed the world. It would
have made us kinder. Thou shalt carry the one, he intones to
the small desks in empty classrooms, carry the one.
Copyright © Lorna Crozier. Originally published in God of Shadows (McClelland & Stewart/Random House, 2018).
The online, open-access Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (JHM) publishes new issues twice each year -- and the first issue for 2022 is now available and is rich with math-poetry offerings. One of the fun items is a folder of Fibs, featuring contributions (with email contact information) from:
Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya, Gerd Asta Bones, Robin Chapman,
Marian Christie, Marion Deutsche Cohen, Stephen Day,
Carol Dorf, Susan Gerofsky, Sarah Glaz,
David Greenslade, Emily Grosholz, JoAnne Growney,
Kate Jones, Gizem Karaali, Lisa Lajeunesse,
Cindy Lawrence, Larry Lesser, Alice Major,
Kaz Maslanka, Dan May, Bjoern Muetzel,
Mike Naylor, Doug Norton, Eveline Pye,
Jacob Richardson, S. Brackett Robertson,
Stephanie Strickland, Susana Sulic,
Connie Tettenborn, Racheli Yovel.
And the current JHM issue contains five more poems -- thoughtful and thought-provoking: "What's So Great About Non-Orientable Manifolds?" by Michael McCormick, "Wrong Way" by Joseph Chaney, "The Solipsist’s First Paper" by Sabrina Sixta, "Heuristic or Stochastic?" by E Laura Golberg, and "So Long My Friend" by Bryan McNair.
In closing, I offer here a sample from the folder of Fibs, this one written by Gizem Karaali, one of the editors of JHM.
Where does math come from?
If
You
Want to
Do some math,
Dive into the depths
Of your mind, climb heights of your soul.
Thank you, Gizem Karaali, for your work in humanizing mathematics!
As she had done in numerous preceding years, mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz is once again an organizer for a poetry reading at the BRIDGES Math-Arts Conference -- this year to be held in Richmond, Virginia, August 1-5.
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| Bridges Poetry Reading Website |
Poetry Reading Sunday, August 4, 3:00 - 5:00 pm2500 West Broad Street Richmond, Virginia
The Annual BRIDGES Math-Art
Conference will be virtual again this year (August 2-6, 2021) and
mathematician-poet Sarah Glaz has developed an online array of poets and
poetry to be part of this program. Bios and sample poems are already available here.
Participating poets include: Marian Christie, Carol Dorf, Susan Gerofsky. David Greenslade, Emily Grosholz, JoAnne Growney, Lisa Lajeunesse, Marco Lucchesi, Mike Naylor, Osmo Pekonen, Tom Petsinis, Eveline Pye, Any Uyematsu, Ursula Whitcher -- and, also, these open-mike participants: Susana Sulic, S. Brackert Robertson, Stephen Wren, Marion Deutsche Cohen, Connie Tetteborn, Jacob Richardson, Robin Chapman. Stephanie Strickland. (Bios and sample poems here.)
Here is a sample from the BRIDGES poetry program:
Descartes by Eeva-Liisa Manner
translated from the Finnish by Osmo Pekonen
I thought, but I wasn't.
I said animals were machines.
I had lost everything but my reason.
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