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: