Thursday, September 22, 2011

Equiangular


The path sears its trajectory
Seeking the comfort of bijection
Segregated from the clusters, an outlier
Watching point devour bundle
Wrinkling lip, as forms the Spinode
Wishing equation finds a root

Dreams, steeped in fantastical roots
Comatose, losing trajectory
Is that a point of singularity, Is that my Spinode?
Yearning for bijection
Without family, one can’t be in a bundle
Relegated, to all it knows, forever the outlier

The clusters grow distant; such is the plight of an outlier
Astir the lonely can, never able to take root
Witness to a thousand bundles
Never fearing their trajectory
Always talking, always a bijection
But its points are sharp, never the Spinode

Where is my Spinode?
Craving unity, yet cast aside, always the outlier
In my head, I’ve seen the beauty of bijection
One to one, able to catch root
A perfect trajectory
Embraced by my own bundle

The love of a bundle
Two branches of a curve meet, a Spinode
Painting the horizon with pristine trajectory
Never alone again, discarding the mask of outlier
Try to steal me from this root
Impossible for he that knows the feel of bijection

Have you ever experienced the brilliance of bijection?
Joined by the like, clustered in a bundle
Nourishing water feeding a combined root
Tangents coinciding this Spinode
Never forgetting the previous life, alone as outlier
Harnessing trajectory

The trajectory of curve, and the point for Spinode
Love comes in bundles; we pity the outlier
He without the knowledge of bijection; he without roots

D'Verse is rolling out the Sestinas tonight for their Form For All night.  Gay is hosting the evening and really did a great job introducing the form.  Sestinas are a different breed of poem for sure.  I've always found the form interesting in concept, but very difficult to produce one personally, well a good one anyhow.  I remember playing the Sestina game, way back in grad school.  We all wrote down six random words on a sheet of paper, cut each word off the sheet and placed all the words in a brown bag.  Each student went up and took turns pulling out a word until we all had six.  Then we went on to create our own Sestina.  

This is one form that always boggles my mind.  I could have picked out six perfect words, but the problem that I find popping up is adhering to their positioning on subsequent stanzas.  It's very typically the case where I find myself wanting to say something different, or more likely a great line, not including the needed word, pops into my head but can't be used.   It's both aggravating and fun at the same time.  You feel like you've passed a major challenge.  It's a bit of a rush.

The example Gay provided on the site is a really good one.  Mine normally comes out a bit disjointed.  So of course I'd have to go and pick 6 mathematical terms for the piece.  It was a challenge but I kinda like what came out of the exercise.  And it's always a good thing to challenge and expand the limits of one's mind.  So hope you all enjoy and for those of you not joining me via D'Verse.  Make sure you click on the link I've provided here to check out the other submissions, and perhaps, if you're up to the challenge, submit one of your own.

12 comments:

  1. fred...the form...well most any form scares the crap out of me...then you go and choose words like trajectory, spinode, bi-something or other...seriously mind boggling...bundles of love....lol...creative...well played...

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  2. this form is tough, I agree, but the challenge is so rewarding, well done

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  3. Oh no - My first comment was lost. Probably just as well as I got quite maudlin over this piece, which ought not inspire tears at all. My deceased husband was an engineer who worked on the moon shot, a graduate of MIT who did the early work on semi-conductors, he was a physicist but unfortunately even though our trajectories crossed, I never was steeped enough in mathematics to appreciate everything you've done here.

    However, I know enough to know you've used the form correctly, you've used mathematical terms as a metaphor, and you've given me reason to understand that though I've had little bundles that they are now grown and busy, and I must continue on my present trajectory alone.

    This is as brilliant to me as the night sky.
    I love it, though not as much as perhaps I should if I were more cognizant of the terms.
    Gay

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  4. oh wow fred - i was so drawn in by your words that i didn't realize it is a sestina first...so cool - and i agree - gay's article is excellent...still i'm too much of a coward to approach the sestina...maybe one day...

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  5. You played to my other love... mathematics. The familiarity of terms resounds with me, the form is well done.

    Such a challenging form. Felt mine was a bit disjointed at times, then too repetitive.

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  6. This is a very well-executed exercise in the form, and I think I may understand the general point you're going for but even with a dictionary, the mathematical terms were not translating to concepts my mind could understand-if it were just one or two, but each one was more complex than the preceding one, and I suck at math, it's a complete alien language to me, so this is me, not you, but it means I can't appreciate your poem the way I'd like to. (Bijection, in particular, defeated me.) If you ever want to impress a math geek who is also a poet, though, I think this would do it.

    I enjoyed your college story about writing keywords at random and pulling them out of a hat-- that would be a crazy challenge to the nimbleness of any mind.

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  7. Some forms are crazy hard, I feel this is close to that type of lunacy, but fun nonetheless. I guess that's the definition of challenge though, or at least one way of looking at it. Math is interesting as well. While in poetry there can be so many interpretations, in Math there is typically one. Terms though, well that's where the playing feel grows closer together.

    I thought about choosing some different words, but I'd been playing with the idea of having a purely mathematically based poem for some time now. I've trickled some terms and ideas in random spaces many times before but I thought why not and try working math into this form. It was difficult, won't lie about that.

    Really glad everyone seemed to enjoy the write. I probably should have included some definitions of each word, I thought about it but second guessed myself. But you know what I think, based on the comments that by not defining each term, it seems like the metaphor came out really nicely. So I'm glad it worked out.

    Really love the depth to many of the responses here. I love hearing about people's experiences, in their own lives and of those they love, it is a part of poetry that I love to death. And I thank you all for sharing your words with me and letting me in on some of your personal "data sets".

    Really pleased with the piece myself and can't thank you all enough for stopping by and doing a bit of Form For All Math. Twas my pleasure. Thanks again

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  8. Wow this form is rather crazy, I was a tad too lazy to try, full of bliss and all..haha. But you really nailed it and love the word choices, you sure didn't just try and go the easy root, great job.

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  9. This is a powerful statement about isolation and interdependence.
    The love of a bundle
    Two branches of a curve meet, a Spinode
    Painting the horizon with pristine trajectory
    Never alone again, discarding the mask of outlier
    Try to steal me from this root
    Impossible for he that knows the feel of bijection

    A sparkling stanza.

    I have a poem I wrote to Hypatia, chock a block full of mathematical terms if you're interested. http://chromapoesy.com/2011/09/08/stochastic-intimacy/

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  10. Pat, it is a crazy form, not easy in the least bit. Thanks, glad you enjoyed the piece.

    Anna-

    Thrilled you like the write- sparkling stanza sounds great- love the way that sounds. I'll check your piece out, never can get enough math in one's day:) Thanks

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  11. Very clever, and I love the metaphors contained in the maths.

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  12. Rosemary, thanks glad you enjoyed the piece. Working with the math and applying them to metaphorical ideals was difficult but pretty fun as well. Thanks again

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