April is Poetry Month, and while poetry is made of words, numbers rule their rhyming. Think about Dr. Seuss books, where two lines in a row rhyme: "Knox in box / Fox in socks." Since the first 2 lines rhyme, then the 3rd and 4th rhyme, we call that an a-a-b-b pattern. But sometimes not all the lines rhyme, and the patterns can get more complicated. So we were amazed by New Orleans "sidewalk poet" Antoine: Tell him your favorite thing, and he'll write a poem about it -- then you decide how much to pay him for it. We asked for a poem about math, which you can find below!
And here is Antoine's poem - thank you Antoine for the inspiration!
it's a system
click
it's a system of an infinite
number of systems
it's the imagination
at play
inventing dimensions
into dimensions
turning an equation into
a sculpted crystal
floating somewhere
around which
the mind circles
admiring
it's the art
of creating sideways
back alleys
and getting stuck into
nerve-wracking dead-ends
and try again
and again
till it equals
true.
