PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

In the waning months of 2024, I embarked upon a quest where the ancient arts of geometry merged with the mystical craft of poetry. Like an explorer charting unknown territories, I responded to Rattlecast’s challenge, which called for poets to sing of their cherished shapes through the intricate form known as the pantoum. As both a teacher/tutor of STEM (mathematician — not so much) and poet, traversing the realms between logic and artistry, this convergence of strict form and sacred numerology struck a resonant chord with the idea that Maths Is Fun!

In my sanctuary of learning in Meanjin, where I guide diverse minds through the labyrinthine passages of understanding, I craft daily bridges between abstract concepts and human experience. These poems emerged from that sacred space where numbers dance with meaning, where each theorem holds a story waiting to be told.

The first scroll I unfurled became “Kepler Triangle,”  a meditation on the divine proportions that dance through the cosmos. Like the sacred triangles I sketch for my students, helping them grasp the golden ratios that whisper through nature’s design, this poem seeks to illuminate the harmony hidden in geometric form.

“The Geometer’s Gambit”  emerged from darker contemplations, born from those late nights when I sat with struggling learners, watching them wrestle with concepts that seemed to defy mortal understanding. It chronicles the obsessive quest for mathematical truth that I’ve witnessed in myself and my students—that moment when the pursuit of pure geometry becomes a beautiful madness.

As a guide for neurodivergent minds, I’ve learned that even perfect forms can crack under pressure. “Hexagon’s Lament”  arose from this understanding, using the hexagon’s rigid perfection to mirror those moments when our carefully constructed frameworks begin to fracture. It speaks to the hidden strengths we discover in our apparent weaknesses, a truth I share daily with my students.

The collection concludes with “Golden Ratio’s Grace,”  which returns to the Kepler Triangle but views through the lens of imperfect beauty —a perspective gained from years of watching diverse minds grapple with and ultimately embrace mathematical concepts in their unique ways. 

While these verses may not have found their home in Rattlecast’s halls (perhaps due to timing rather than merit), they represent something far more precious: a mapping of the territories where mathematical precision meets human experience, where sacred geometry dances with personal truth. As both poet and tutor, I offer these poems as waypoints for fellow travellers navigating the intersections of logic, creativity, precision, and passion.

Like the solutions we discover together in my tutoring sanctuary, these poems remind us that sometimes the most profound mathematical truths emerge not from perfect execution but from our beautiful human attempts to grasp the infinite. Through the disciplined form of the pantoum, with its mathematical precision of repeated lines, these pieces attempt to capture the rigorous beauty of geometry and its deeper resonance with human experience.

Join me in exploring shape and spirit, where numbers sing, and theorems whisper stories of understanding. Whether you approach these works as a mathematician, poet, or seeker of truth, may you find your reflection in these geometric verses.

I invite you to explore the intersections between mathematics, poetry, and human understanding. Should we examine any particular aspect of mathematical mysticism?