• Dorothy Livesay -- Mathematics

    From David Dalton@dalton@nfld.com to alt.arts.poetry.comments, rec.arts.poems, sci.math on Sun Feb 22 18:18:19 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.poems

    HererCOs a poem by Dorothy Livesay:

    -------

    Mathematics

    I want to play the great dame, darling
    but only you can play it to perfection:
    Much talk.. no bed. Some talk.. some bed
    no talk.. all bed; and talk tomorrow.

    I meant to play the great game, darling
    and hold your bones deep to the root of one
    I meant to play the great game, darling
    but the heart for it is gone.

    -------

    How do you interpret that? I guess there are
    many complex mth roots of 1=2*n*pi, n=0,1,2...
    Also I guess the heart could be a cardioid. :-)

    In the above poem some multiple spaces will
    have been converted to a single space by my
    newsreader Hogwasher, which does not
    allow posting of multiple spaces (or spaces
    at the start of a line) or of multiple blank lines.
    --
    https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page) rCLI gave my love a golden feather; I gave my love a heart of stone; When you find a golden feather it means yourCOll never lose your way back homerCY(RR)

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  • From David Dalton@dalton@nfld.com to alt.arts.poetry.comments, rec.arts.poems, sci.math on Sun Feb 22 18:26:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.poems

    On Feb 22, 2026, David Dalton wrote
    (in article<0001HW.2F4BB12301BD66FC30AB5238F@news.eternal-september.org>):

    HererCOs a poem by Dorothy Livesay:

    -------

    Mathematics

    I want to play the great dame, darling
    but only you can play it to perfection:
    Much talk.. no bed. Some talk.. some bed
    no talk.. all bed; and talk tomorrow.

    I meant to play the great game, darling
    and hold your bones deep to the root of one
    I meant to play the great game, darling
    but the heart for it is gone.

    -------

    How do you interpret that? I guess there are
    many complex mth roots of 1=2*n*pi, n=0,1,2...

    oops, 1=e^(2*i*n*pi)

    Also I guess the heart could be a cardioid. :-)

    In the above poem some multiple spaces will
    have been converted to a single space by my
    newsreader Hogwasher, which does not
    allow posting of multiple spaces (or spaces
    at the start of a line) or of multiple blank lines.
    --
    https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page) rCLI gave my love a golden feather; I gave my love a heart of stone; When you find a golden feather it means yourCOll never lose your way back homerCY(RR)

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2