Steph, I love the revised last stanza.

Thank you!

I sing too. Not in white gloves or a torpedo bra.

I'm afraid I'm firmly with erika on the subject of Eisenhower-era "ladies". This is not why I learned to kickbox, damnit.

It's not so much the singing as the songs... buffistas and "Que Sera Sera?!" I don't think so....unless it's a drag show, or something.(Cause I was in the choir in high school, myself. Had more hope than talent.Still sing along with Aretha in my sad white girl fashion when I'm alone sometimes. Not dissing singing as a gift, Mary Sue excepted.)

I love the revised stanza, Steph.

It becomes a magic spell: I won't deconstruct why it pings me. Because when you take apart a spell, or a mantra, and to try to apply math to it? You risk depleting or eliminating the magic.

Random tangent, but one of my favorite quotes (I'm pretty sure I had it as a tagline for awhile) is Karl Weierstrass: "A mathematician who is not also something of a poet will never be a complete mathematician."

Hil, I bet most poet-math types have the sense to worship their two fetishes separately. Either that, or there's a school of magic I must back slowly away from.

I bet most poet-math types have the sense to worship their two fetishes separately.

Would this count as a mix? From the BBC site:

Valerie Laws lives on the North-East coast. She is a graduate of English and Maths and Theoretical Physics, all of which are reflected in her work.

However, note that

She is the editor of an anthology of poems about Star Trek.

Steph, that is a very, very amazing poem.

That quantum sheep thing looks kind of cool, if weird.

I dunno. There's a certain sort of brain-space-feeling thing that I get when I'm writing something that's finally coming together, or when I'm designing something and get all the pieces to fit together to look how it seems like it should, or when I'm working on a proof and find something that makes it all just click. I don't think there is such a big split between "these are sciency/rational" things and "these are creative/emotional" things. Just different aspects of the same thing, to me.

What Hil Said.

Just treat it as a weird part of our creative process. Some people are inspired by asparagus, others by math. Doesn't necessarily affect the outward form of the poem.

I don't think there is such a big split between "these are sciency/rational" things and "these are creative/emotional" things. Just different aspects of the same thing, to me.

This is one of those moments where willingness to use an emoticon would have helped clarify the tongue-in-cheek aspect of my post, I guess; hence my use of the word "fetish".

Of course they're different aspects of the same thing, says the ex-dancer who, after numerous sprains and pulls, understood all too well how physics is applied to what the body will and will not do while executing ridiculous movements for which said body was never designed in nature.

• catching up, enjoying a lovely poem*

Steph, your poem made me think about a discussion we had in my CW class about poetry not being able to have the same kind of strong distinctive voice peculiar to prose. I'm thinking you've blown that assonine theory to bits.

Can't remember if I ever posted about this here and am too lazy to back-read so...

I was asked to read at the lauch of Juice III and I opted to read one of the pieces published in the journal (my love poem) and those haikus (which you might remember Deb) Anyway, despite the fact my voice was all wavery from nerves a few people actually came up to me afterwards to compliment me on them, which made the whole vegan cake recipe rejection not so ego-crushing.

The new journal doesn't have its online companion version yet, but I can put up a link to the second volume which has my spaghetti- western- fun -type short story in it if any of you care to check it out.

Oh, and if anyone cares to look at a tiny skeleton of a short story (an imagery assignment for my CW class) before I hand it in next Friday that would be grand. Any takers?