Dorothy Livesay -- Mathematics poem

[David Dalton]

Here is a poem by Dorothy Livesay from her book
of selected poems, The Self-Completing Tree.

--------------
Mathematics

I want to play the great game, 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 the poem? In my book I
wrote down lemniscate root of one, perhaps
related to my theory of lemniscate time, but I
have crossed it out. I also wrote down eighth root
of one, where one can be expressed as
e^{2*n*pi*i}, and there are eight eighth roots of one
(there are one two square roots, 1 and -1).

Of course the heart could also be a cardioid.

I’ll think about it some more but just wanted to
put it forward for discussion for now.

Is anyone else on here familiar with Dorothy Livesay?

Followup-To set to alt.arts.poetry.comments .

[MummyChunk]

Post by David Dalton
Here is a poem by Dorothy Livesay from her book
of selected poems, The Self-Completing Tree.
--------------
Mathematics
I want to play the great game, darling
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 the poem? In my book I
wrote down lemniscate root of one, perhaps
related to my theory of lemniscate time, but I
have crossed it out. I also wrote down eighth root
of one, where one can be expressed as
e^{2*n*pi*i}, and there are eight eighth roots of one
(there are one two square roots, 1 and -1).
Of course the heart could also be a cardioid.
I’ll think about it some more but just wanted to
put it forward for discussion for now.
Is anyone else on here familiar with Dorothy Livesay?
Followup-To set to alt.arts.poetry.comments .
--
https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
"And the cart is on a wheel; And the wheel is on a hill;
And the hill is shifting sand; And inside these laws we stand” (Ferron)

I've never heard of her, but it's interesting to learn about all of the poets that everyone is posting about in this group.

Ping to Will. Have you ever heard of her?


This is a response to the post seen at:
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=683374843#683374843

[Will-Dockery]

Post by MummyChunk
I've never heard of her, but it's interesting to learn about all of the poets that everyone is posting about in this group.
Ping to Will. Have you ever heard of her?

Again, yes.

I don't remember much about her poetry at the moment, I do remember it was pretty deep and thought provoking work.


This is a response to the post seen at:
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=683374843#683374843

[W.Dockery]

Post by MummyChunk

Post by David Dalton
Here is a poem by Dorothy Livesay from her book
of selected poems, The Self-Completing Tree.
--------------
Mathematics
I want to play the great game, darling
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 the poem? In my book I
wrote down lemniscate root of one, perhaps
related to my theory of lemniscate time, but I
have crossed it out. I also wrote down eighth root
of one, where one can be expressed as
e^{2*n*pi*i}, and there are eight eighth roots of one
(there are one two square roots, 1 and -1).
Of course the heart could also be a cardioid.
I’ll think about it some more but just wanted to
put it forward for discussion for now.
Is anyone else on here familiar with Dorothy Livesay?
Followup-To set to alt.arts.poetry.comments .
--
https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
"And the cart is on a wheel; And the wheel is on a hill;
And the hill is shifting sand; And inside these laws we stand” (Ferron)

I've never heard of her, but it's interesting to learn about all of the
poets that everyone is posting about in this group.
Ping to Will. Have you ever heard of her?

Yes, I don't know much about her as of yet, but we have discussed her
poetry several times on the newsgroups:

https://groups.google.com/u/0/g/alt.arts.poetry.comments/search?q=%22Dorothy%20Livesay%22%20

Post by MummyChunk
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=683374843#683374843

[Will-Dockery]

Post by MummyChunk
I've never heard of her, but it's interesting to learn about all of the poets that everyone is posting about in this group.
Ping to Will. Have you ever heard of her?

Yes, we've discussed the poetry of Dorothy Livesay here a few times, I've bumped a thread I found in the Nova BBS archives, which should appear here at JLA Forums soon.

😏


This is a response to the post seen at:
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=683374843#683374843