Mathematics Pays Court To Literature

November 30, 2011 1 Comment

Sarah Seff Rolfe was my poetry mentor.  I recall spending many evenings listening to her helpful criticisms.  She had a musical voice, which I still hear when I read her poetry.  Her book of poems, Heart and Mouth are One, was published by Terebinth Press in 1983 just before her death in 1984.  She never read the following poem of mine, but I’d like to think she would have enjoyed it.

Mathematics Pays Court to Literature

Literature appeared, leaving a castle of words, trailing silver metaphors.

Moonlight touched her face, luring her into a poetic garden.

She paused to think, then rested beside a river of flowing ideas.

Suddenly, a steady footstep echoed through the flowering shrubs.

Fearful, lest the person see her beauty rare, she enveloped herself in a cloak of ambiguities.

The sound grew nearer.  It was Mathematics-tall, slender, and with an exactness that made her tremble, he spoke:

“Oh, Mistress of Language, why must you hide your elegant beauty?  I beseech you to glance at me.”

Literature coyly smiled, and seemed to laugh beneath the protective cloak.

“I have many suitors.  I am courted by Linguistics.  What can you offer me?”

“I have manifolds, singular points, vector fields of thriving grain, coordinate rings of ruby and diamond.  All these I offer thee.”

Mathematics kissed her cheek.  Literature blushed and turned away.

“You are too bold , Sir.”

“It is my way to come to a swift conclusion.”

Then the two embraced in a shadowy corner of infinite space.

And the galaxies winked to see the pair linked

as they rode a nebula of possibilities…

Filed under Education, Language, Literature, Mathematics, Original Writing and Reflections Tagged with , , , ,

A Wonderful Collection Of Bassoon Pieces

November 29, 2011 Leave a comment

A wonderful collection of bassoon pieces is Laurence Perkins’s The Playful Pachyderm.  This is my favorite bassoon recital CD put out by Hyperion.  Stirring interpretations of folk melodies are mixed with classic bassoon pieces such as Elgar’s Romance, Godfrey’s Lucy Long, and Fucik’s The Old Grumbler.  All throughout Perkins is more than equal to the selections, and plays crisply, displaying excellent tone and technique.  The Mist-covered Mountains, a Scottish folk melody, which adds a clarsach, is truly an exciting piece.  The CD ends with comic baritone Richard Suart adding a dose of humor and laughter.

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If You Study German, You Better Love Commas

November 13, 2011 2 Comments

If you study German, you better love commas.  Forget the other unimportant punctuation marks such as periods, question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and colons.  Focus on commas, your deepest love.  Only then will you truly grasp the nature of clauses.  And, most importantly, you will be on your way to finding the mysterious verb and subject.  German is a kind of puzzle.  Perhaps that’s why the Germans produced so many great philosophers.  It’s a language that abounds in tricks and words that have many meanings dependent on their context or function in the sentence.  Ganz abgesehen, German can be great fun to read.  Get a hold of German for Reading by Sandberg and Wendel, and in 6-8 months you will read German fluently.  This wonderful text contains actual excerpts from the writings of:  Freud, Jung, Jaspers, Engels, and Schweitzer, among others.  Good luck!

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The rapid above Tucker’s: The Stair Steps

November 4, 2011 Leave a comment

The rapid which my Dad called “The Rapid Above Tucker’s” was known locally as the Stair Steps or the Steps.  This rapid survived the ’64 flood, although it lost some of the sharpness of its drop since the river widened.  The rapid came after a series of narrow drops that were negotiated on the left, because there was a river wide bar.  Following the drops, the river turned right and the Steps began.  You followed a current on the right passing to the left of two boulders, then made your way to the center to slide over a ledge.  This was a tricky maneuver since the ledge was chock full of rocks, and you had a tight squeeze.  Once over the ledge, you needed to dodge a few boulders in the left channel, especially the last wave, which was a large hole.  The river dropped several feet from the top with the right resembling a falls.  Following immediately was a large bar with waves that tried to take you into the bank.  This was a rapid that I inner tubed many times with my sister Nancy and my cousin Gregg Turner.  It was always a challenge and great fun.  Just below was a famous fishing spot, especially for steelhead.

Filed under Inner Tubing, Rogue River, Nature Tagged with , , , , , ,