Monday, January 21, 2013

One Hundredth Monkey

It is written that poetry and mathematics
Are incompatible areas of study.
On what planet?
The universe and all that is in it
Is written in the letters of numbers,
From laws of motion and gravity 
Holding earth together
To the golden mean of the human body.
This language in the hands of a poet
Would create an awesome poem
And it might sound like a composition
By Bach or MozArt 
Read by the voice of Aslan
Singing worlds together.
Borodin the chemist composer
Of symphonic poem
Was not an oxymoron
More renaissance man
Like Leonardo
Our planet needs more of.
A think tank of them
Might achieve
World peace and unobtainium.
On what planet?
There will always be a Roman soldier
To effect the death of Archimedes,
He who wrote only one poem.
There will always be a fanatic mob
To scrape off the skin and
Beat down the likes of Hypatia.
There will always be a library
Set on fire burning answers
To our numerological fate.
But one day there will be
The One-Hundredth Monkey of our race.



12 comments:

  1. I smiled when I saw your title - we are kindred spirits. I adore this poem - this truth-telling - my son composes classical music and the link between music and mathematics is very clear - your poem resonates with me so completely. Wonderful to read and ponder on.........I await that hundredth monkey with anticipation and wish he would hurry up! I'm getting old over here!

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  2. everything connected... beautifully expressed.

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  3. So true. There is nothing that unrelated to something else. Some kinds of poetry are definitely mathematically based, and some arrangements of mathematical formulas definitely look like poetry... Not to mention, yes, that 100th Monkey.

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  4. Love the connections made here. Nice write

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  5. I LOVE this! I have long thought that math/science and art are two sides of the same coin, two lenses focused on the same subject. Terrific write, Libby! I always enjoy coming here.

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  6. The connections between the written word, math and science forms of universal communication as we know it and beyond. When the 100th monkey comes will the 99th monkey hold the door open for him? Nice write Libby.

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  7. Wonderful Libby!
    The voice of your view aligns so much wisdom n' thought~
    I, too have thought the connection were there..
    Thank you for sharing your view :D

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  8. great write! The one-hundredth monkey is coming! :)

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  9. 'It is written that poetry and mathematics
    Are incompatible areas of study.' I like how you approach the argument--with poetry! I do think poets are no less 'thinkers' than mathematicians are...

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  10. Fantastic references throughout...great diversity and depth. I really enjoyed the careful word choice and assonant moments, too.

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  11. such a great read. The wonders of complementary views of the same world. The universe is reducible to mathematics... the universe is reducible to poetry. And visa versa. Naturally.

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  12. Wonderful ..... math is poetry....poetry is math......... symmetry in the universe.....all is connected!

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