As February on the calendar brings BLACK HISTORY month and March brings WOMEN'S HISTORY month, I invite you to explore the contributions of diverse groups to mathematics. In this blog, I celebrate links between a rainbow of math-people and poetry -- for example, in this posting, "Mathematicians are not just white dudes, (which includes links to math-poetry by Benjamin Banneker and Scott Williams).
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Welcome DIVERSITY in mathematics
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Valentine's Day -- a time for Love and Mathematics
Perhaps you are looking for a mathy Valentine,
or a Valentine for a mathy person . . . or both.
This link leads to the results of a blog-search using VALENTINE
and offers lots of math-poetic possibilities.
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"Binary Heart" -- linking love and mathematics
From the xkcd webcomic by Randall Munroe -- and also shown on the cover of Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics, we have this reminder of upcoming Valentine's Day.
Munroe's witty drawings -- from his clever drawings "of romance, sarcasm, math, and language" -- have appeared also in previous postings in this blog (here's a link) and his website is fun to visit.
The anthology, Strange Attractors; Poems of Love and Mathematics-- edited by Sarah Glaz and me -- was published in 2008 by AK Peters and contains more than 150 poems of math and love (including another -- "Useless" -- by Munroe.) More about Munroe is available here.
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| "Binary Heart" by Randall Munroe, at https://xkcd.com/99/ |
The anthology, Strange Attractors; Poems of Love and Mathematics-- edited by Sarah Glaz and me -- was published in 2008 by AK Peters and contains more than 150 poems of math and love (including another -- "Useless" -- by Munroe.) More about Munroe is available here.
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Those trains in word problems -- who rides them?
A Problem in a Math Book by Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)
I remember a problem in a math book
about a train that leaves from place A and another train
that leaves from place B. When will they meet?
And no one ever asked what happens when they meet:
will they stop or pass each other by, or maybe collide?
And none of the problems was about a man who leaves from place A
and a woman who leaves from place B. When will they meet,
Read more »
I remember a problem in a math book
about a train that leaves from place A and another train
that leaves from place B. When will they meet?
And no one ever asked what happens when they meet:
will they stop or pass each other by, or maybe collide?
And none of the problems was about a man who leaves from place A
and a woman who leaves from place B. When will they meet,
Read more »
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Which order is best -- or should I try them all?
This posting celebrates a new poetry collection --
Ringing the ChangesbyStephanie Strickland
(Counterpath, 2020).
Read more »
(Counterpath, 2020).
This new collection starts with an idea from bell-ringing. Some city towers have marvelous-sounding bells -- and sometimes these bells ring wonderful concerts for nearby inhabitants. One of the traditional bell-ringing activities is called "ringing the changes" in which a collection of n bells are rung, in sequence, in all of the possible n-factorial bell-orders. (Here, at Strickland's website, are some links to information about the art of bell-ringing.)
BUT, what if the goal were not to ring bells in sequence
but to generate (for a reader) sequences of words (thoughtful poetic phrases)?
This sort of art is what Strickland brings to us in Ringing the Changes.
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Counting syllables, considering snowflakes
From Larry Lesser, a professor at The University of Texas at El Paso (a researcher in math education) and a poet and songwriter and friend, today's poem offers a thoughtful reflection on the properties of a snowflake--and the fragility of thought and weather patterns. But first (and also from Lesser), here's a clever "2019" stanza (in which each line has the number of syllables of the corresponding digit in that year):
Silence
is
sometimes the strongest thing we can say.
SNOWFLAKE by Lawrence Mark Lesser
Some say
‘‘no two alike’’,
others say
‘‘not too alike’’.
Read more »
Silence
is
sometimes the strongest thing we can say.
SNOWFLAKE by Lawrence Mark Lesser
Some say
‘‘no two alike’’,
others say
‘‘not too alike’’.
Read more »
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A MATH WOMAN acrostic poem
Can one describe a MATH WOMAN in 9 words?
and, what if those words' first letters must spell MATH WOMAN?
Try it -- it's fun!
and, what if those words' first letters must spell MATH WOMAN?
Try it -- it's fun!
A xioms
T risects
H yperbolas
W rites
O rthogonal
M atrices
A voids
N egatives
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New math poems -- recently found online
A couple of days ago an email brought me the Table of Contents of the latest issue (Vol. 42, Issue 1) of The Mathematical Intelligencer -- and it had links to two poems that I hope that you also will enjoy.
First was "The Day I Receive My Ph.D." by Arkaye Kierulf of Cornell University. Kierulf's poem begins with these lines:
I’ll head out into the streets to hand out
My dissertation abstract like discount-hotel flyers.
Additional very rich sources of mathematical poetry are the twice-yearly issues of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (online here). The latest issue (January 2020) contains a folder of Statistical Poetry by Larry Lesser (many of Lesser's poems also are featured in this blog), and five additional poems:
"Perfect (a poem)" by Joseph Chaney, "A Letter to Niccolò Fontana de Brescia" by Jessica Huey, "The Empress's Nose: A Parable, After Feynman" by Robert Dawson, "SIGINT signifier" by Terry Trowbridge, and "The Master Oiler" by Ernesto Estrada.
First was "The Day I Receive My Ph.D." by Arkaye Kierulf of Cornell University. Kierulf's poem begins with these lines:
I’ll head out into the streets to hand out
My dissertation abstract like discount-hotel flyers.
For Christmas I’ll send copies of my diploma to . . .
For Kierulf's complete poem go here.
Also in this same issue of the Intelligencer -- and available at this link -- is the poem, "Remembering e" by Robert J. MacG. Dawson of Halifax University in Nova Scotia. Dawson's math-poetry has been featured in several previous posting's in this blog. Visit and enjoy!Additional very rich sources of mathematical poetry are the twice-yearly issues of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (online here). The latest issue (January 2020) contains a folder of Statistical Poetry by Larry Lesser (many of Lesser's poems also are featured in this blog), and five additional poems:
"Perfect (a poem)" by Joseph Chaney, "A Letter to Niccolò Fontana de Brescia" by Jessica Huey, "The Empress's Nose: A Parable, After Feynman" by Robert Dawson, "SIGINT signifier" by Terry Trowbridge, and "The Master Oiler" by Ernesto Estrada.
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Learn of MATH WOMEN in POEMS!
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WOMAN
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Often it is difficult to find time for history in mathematics courses. One rather concise way that some of us introduce math personalities into the classroom is through poetry. Today, as part of Women's History Month, I offer links back to a sample of poems in previous postings that celebrate math-women.Amalie "Emmy" Noether (1882–1935)
Following stanzas about Noether's life and achievements, the poem ends with these lines:
Today, history books proclaim that Noether
is the greatest mathematician
her sex has produced. They say she was good
for a woman.
Philippa Fawcett (1868-1946)
Sophie Germain (1776-1831)
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1988)
Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)
Sophia Kovalevsky (1850-1891)
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) and there are more . ..
To find additional math-people postings, the blog's SEARCH feature can be used. For example, a search for "math women" leads to this collection of postings. This link leads to a list of all titles of postings prior to 2020 and browsing it can lead to a variety of possibilities . . .
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"Numbers and Faces" and 23 more math poems
"Numbers and Faces" is the title of a poem by W. H. Auden -- and I also have used it as the title of a collection of poems that I gathered into a small anthology for the Humanistic Mathematics Network in 2001. The collection is out of print BUT is available here as a pdf -- and the Table of Contents is shown below:
Read more »
Read more »
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Observe Pi-Day by writing in Pilish
Many poets use constraints to shape their writing but few are as constrained as mathematician Mike Keith who has written many works in Pilish -- that is, a language in which the flow of words have lengths that follow the digits of Pi. In honor of 2020's Pi-Day on 3.14, I have developed a small bit of Pilish, a poem of sorts, which I offer below.
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Entering the term "Pilish" into this blog's SEARCH box finds these earlier postings that celebrate Pi.
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Keeping Track -- poetry with numbers
The very fine poetry of Jane Hirshfield has been featured in several earlier blog postings. And below, again -- with some lines from "Ledger," the title poem for her new collection, out this month. These lines find, as Hirshfield often does, both life-truths and poetry in numbers.
Ledger by Jane Hirshfield
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is 3,592 measures.
A voice kept far from feeling is heard as measured.
What’s wanted in desperate times are desperate measures.
Pushkin’s unfinished Onegin: 5,446 lines.
Read more »
Ledger by Jane Hirshfield
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is 3,592 measures.
A voice kept far from feeling is heard as measured.
What’s wanted in desperate times are desperate measures.
Pushkin’s unfinished Onegin: 5,446 lines.
Read more »
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What does this math-poetry blog contain?
An alphabetical list of TOPICS
and NAMES of all of the poets and mathematicians
cited in this blog is available here.
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Honor World Poetry Day on 3/21 with a Math Poem
On March 21 each year, UNESCO World Poetry Day!
Browsing down through this blog will lead you to lots of poems to read to celebrate that special day. In addition, here's something new -- I offer below part of a fine poem that I recently found again in an old collection, Verse and Universe, (Edited by Kurt Brown, Milkweed Editions, 1998). from Reasons for Numbers by Lisel Mueller (1924-2020)
1
Because I exist
2
Because there must be a reason
why I should cast a shadow
3
So that good can try to be better
and become best
and beginning grow into middle and end
Read more »
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Celebrating 10 Years of Math-Poetry Blogging
This blog's first posting, "Poetry of Logical Ideas" -- found here, occurred ten years ago today on March 23, 2010. This link leads to a list of topics, poets, and mathematicians contained in the 1200+ postings made since then.
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| Word Cloud for this blog -- created at https://tagcrowd.com. |
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SUNSET poem -- guided by a Fano diagram
GEOMETRY IN POETRY
Warning: even if you are not a mathy person, you will like the poem offered below!
When a writer picks up her pen and starts to write, the initial phrases may be simply a ramble -- a pouring out of thoughts that might be able to be shaped into a poem. Over the centuries, writers have used syllable-counts and patterns of rhyme to help them shape their word into the best-possible expressions.Earlier in this blog (in this 2016 posting) is a poem created by Black Hills State University mathematician Daniel May using a geometric structure called a Fano Plane. I offer below another similarly-structured creation by May -- and, after the poem, a bit of explanation.
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| Fano Plane diagram |
Sunset : October 11th by Daniel May
it's late in the day and we’ve climbed up this rise.
i stare, too closely, into the
leaving of the light streaming through the treetops
from the next ridge over.
later, i'll wonder if looking into the sun makes me crazy,
or gives me secret terrible knowledge.
my last willful act will be staring directly into our star,
and it will be like burial at sun.
Read more »
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Mathematics...underlies everything...said the poet
I first met scientist-poet Mary Peelen via an 2019 interview of her by mathematician-poet Gizem Karaali in The Adroit Journal . The conversation includes an introduction to Peelen's poetry collection, Quantum Heresies (Glass Lyre Press, 2019) in which she discusses her intent "to show how mathematics and physics underlie everything in my life . . ." Read more here.
NUMBER THEORY by Mary Peelen
Forty one apples in the tree,
red and round,
praise awaiting gravity,
wholly free of abstraction.
When it comes to the primes
and matters of religion,
I defer to Pythagoras,
his ancient cult and authority.
Read more »
NUMBER THEORY by Mary Peelen
Forty one apples in the tree,
red and round,
praise awaiting gravity,
wholly free of abstraction.
When it comes to the primes
and matters of religion,
I defer to Pythagoras,
his ancient cult and authority.
Read more »
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She should have been on the Math Team
National Poetry Month starts tomorrow and I hope that poetry can be a thoughtful focus for you in this time of crisis and confinement due to the coronavirus. Join me in looking back to several previous posts of work by one of my favorite poets, Audre Lorde (1934-1992).
"Hanging Fire" about a girl who should have been on the Math Team
"The Art of Response"
"Smelling the Wind"
"Hanging Fire" about a girl who should have been on the Math Team
"The Art of Response"
"Smelling the Wind"
Lorde's collection, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance, may be found and browsed here.
For lots more poems about math-girls-and-women, go here.
For lots more poems about math-girls-and-women, go here.
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Math Poettary -- continuous, but not differentiable
A few weeks ago I was introduced via email to Gauarav Bhatnagar, a mathematician now at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. In addition to varied and deep mathematical and educational interests, Bhatnagar likes to play with words; here are a couple examples of his poetic wordplay -- or, as he calls it, poettary.
Continuous function by Gaurav Bhatnagar
A continuous function,
draw it without
picking up pencil
from paper.
At all points,
the left hand limit
Read more »
Continuous function by Gaurav Bhatnagar
A continuous function,
draw it without
picking up pencil
from paper.
At all points,
the left hand limit
Read more »
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The Woman Who Bested the Men at Math
An American Mathematical Society Page-a-Day Mathematics calendar, compiled by mathematician and free-lance writer Evelyn Lamb, has let me know today that tomorrow, April 4, marks the birthday of mathematician Philippa Garrett Fawcett (1868-1948), who became, "in 1890, the first woman to score the highest mark of all the candidates for the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge University."
Learn more about Philippa Fawcett at this website, "Biographies of Women Mathematicians,: -- maintained by Emeritus Professor Larry Riddle at Agnes Scott College. Riddle's biographic sketch of Fawcett includes a poem of anonymous origin that celebrates her 1890 achievement. Here are its opening stanzas:
Read more »
Learn more about Philippa Fawcett at this website, "Biographies of Women Mathematicians,: -- maintained by Emeritus Professor Larry Riddle at Agnes Scott College. Riddle's biographic sketch of Fawcett includes a poem of anonymous origin that celebrates her 1890 achievement. Here are its opening stanzas:
Read more »
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