[1314] Math Is Beautiful and So Are You

Guest poem sent in by Genevieve Aquino

If n is an even number
*then I'll kiss you goodnight right here,*
but if the modulus k is the unique solution,
*I'll take you in my arms for the long night.*

When the properties are constrained as well as incomplete,
*I'll be getting off the train at this stop.*
However, if there is some positive constant,
*then I'll stay on board for a while longer.*

When it says that the supremum deviates from the least zero,
*my heart closes off.*
But if all moments are infinite and you can hear me,
*I will open out for you.*

This sequence satisfies the hypothesis of uniformity,
and because we know that approximation is possible
and that inequality is an embedding factor,
*come, let's try once more.*

	-- Becky Dennison Sakellariou

*words between are in italics

i'd like to share this poem with minstrels in the light of poem #1313.

i came across it while looking for poems on math and this one struck me as
one that captures the romance of mathematics. math, after all, can be very
frustrating, just ask anyone who doesn't like it. math problems are often
just as hopeless as -- or even more hopeless than -- human relationships.

what i like about this poem is how it weaves two images together. a
mathematician (who else would think math beautiful?) struggling over a math
problem, and lover agonizing over a relationship. the mathematician and the
lover are one person. the beloved is the the math problem. and it's charming
to think that mathematicians may actually have that much passion for
mathematics (something i cannot relate to), or that mathematicians in love
still think and feel in terms of mathematics.

the mathematical jargon, instead of making the poem incomprehensible, only
intensifies how confusing love can be.

and the last line: "come, let's try once more," echoes a sentiment common to
people stumped by a math problem or a passionate relationship, yet unable to
give up on something so "beautiful".

i don't know much about Becky Dennison Sakellariou, only that she was born
and raised in New England, but has lived and worked in Greece for several
years. this poem was published in The Beloit Poetry Journal fall issue last
year.

Genevieve

A brief biography:
  Becky Sakellariou has written all her life, and also teaches writing.  She
  also teaches counseling and conflict resolution.  Although born in
  Massachusetts, she has lived in Greece for 35 years where she tends her
  olive trees, pomegranate trees, wild thyme and oregano, her memories, and
  her family.
      -- http://www.branchesquarterly.com/1.4/Contributors1.4.htm


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From: <foshea@>


Dear all,

With the greatest respect and I hope these comments will not cause
offence or be taken personally: 

I have always regretted that there are so few good poems about
mathematics or by mathematicians (exclude Lewis Carroll I suppose). And
today's example bears out my contention. It reads like it might have
been put together by an oversexed computer or by a youngster wondering
what the big boys are whispering about. The first two lines are
promising but then it descends into fridge magnet doggerel, the kind of
thing that gives poetry a bad name.

Sorry.

Frank O'Shea
(mathematician)