The Dificulty In Bridging The Genres of Mathematics and Poetry

    The creative process is one of bridging concepts together to create an expression. I have always wondered if I was indeed bridging mathematics and poetry. So, I put a poll together on this blog to query the readers and find out what end of the spectrum they reside. It turned out that the blog consistently had a 50% split between both mathematics and poetry for the 5 years the poll existed. I feel lucky to have landed in this spot yet, existing in the cracks of genres is never a popular place to be. That said I feel confident that bridging is extremely worthwhile. Creativity is always spawned in the cracks of genres. 

    I would like to share evidence of bridging this gap between the institutions of mathematics and the institutions of poetry. On one hand I had a poem published in the "page a day" calendar for the American Mathematical Society. Here is the letter requesting the poem for Basho:

    Here is the mathematical poem Evelyn chose for the calendar:

 

    And on the other hand, I had one of my mathematical poems nominated by the prestigious literary journal ZYZZYVA, for a pushcart prize in poetry. Here is the letter notifying me that the poem was nominated:

     

    Here is the math poem they nominated:

Joint Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and Mathematical Association of America Conference 2009

This blog entry is to share a few moments and images of the AMS and MAA Joint Meeting held this year in Washington D.C. The first lonely image is a view from my hotel room bed as I tried to get to sleep by counting the sheep jumping over the Washington Monument. The weather for the most part was cold and rainy and made my three-quarter mile walk to the conference a little trying at times. However the last day was nice and offered the image below which was shot from my hotel room window as the sun was rising in the east.

The shot below is a 180 degree panoramic view of 21 images sewn together to provide an overview of the entire show of mathart. The show is always modestly done due to its modest budget (relative to art galleries) but it is always done well and the people who work on it are wonderful enthusiastic individuals who feel mathart can make a difference. They even gave out prizes this year.
The shot below is of the past president of the Mathematical Association of America, Joseph Gallian as he was browsing the show.

Speaking of browsing the show … The next image (below) is of our friend Ivars Peterson who writes about mathart for many publications including Science News.

From left to right: Reza Sarhangi the nucleus of the Bridges Conference on mathematical connections in art music and architecture , Annette Emerson, the Public Relations Officer of the AMS and Anne Burns, one of the Judges for the mathart exhibit and webmaster for the mathart exhibit webpage.
The next image is of Robert Fathauer who curates the mathart show each year and also owns and operated Tessellations a company devoted to selling objects that inspire the math aesthetic.

Here is Nat Friedman and one of his knots displaying a minimum surface by spanning a soap bubble film across the knot. Very interesting and simple stuff showing complex concepts.

The next image is of Reza Sarhangi with Arthur Benjamin who happens to spend a lot of time on stage racing calculators … I have seen him in action and yes, he can calculate in his brain faster than you can calculate on your hand calculator. Check out this video.

JoAnne Growney and Sarah Glaz recently edited an anthology of mathematical love poems titled “Strange Attractors”. The book was published by AK Peters and can be seen in the above photo at the bottom right of the image. Also in the photo are Klaus Peters (left) and his lovely wife Alice (Thus AK). The conference also provided a poetry reading session to deliver poems from the book. The event was organized by co-editor JoAnne and you can see the crowd gathering for the reading in the image below.

In the image above you can see JoAnne standing and speaking to the crowd and Sara sitting and listening (lower right). The image below is of fellow mathematical poet Bob Grumman as he delivers one of his long division mathematical visual poems.

The image above is of me delivering my poem "Prometheus's Epistle to Job"

Here is a link to a review of the poetry reading by Karren Alenier.

Prometheus’s Epistle Nominated For A Pushcart Prize In Poetry

I am extremely grateful and happy to announce that my orthogonal space poem “Prometheus’s Epistle to Job” was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry by the poetry journal ZYZZYZVA.

Here is the Anouncement by ZYZZYVA - I see their blog has been moved or deleted - Here is my original letter from them

Prometheus Epistle to Job

Do the muses scatter ancient fragments of thought or do they just perpetuate them. How is it that the ancient Greek Titans can still speak?

also see Orthogonal Space Poem