Abstract
Participants in this workshop will read and experiment with writing poems structured by two poetic forms, each of which has a connection to mathematics. The first poetic form is of recent vintage, but it is based on an ancient mathematical result, The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, which combined with careful word choices creates a pattern of repetitions that results in a poem with the musicality of tolling bells. The other is the classic and melodic poetic form, the villanelle, whose lines follow a strict meter and whose stanzas are formed by braiding elements of rhyme and refrain in a way that resembles the combined waves of sine and cosine functions in the plane. Both poetic forms are difficult to use successfully and require some adjustments of word choices throughout the process of creating the poem. The workshop will not assume prior knowledge of either the mathematics or the prosody involved. All Bridges participants are welcome! Please bring writing materials, that is, paper and pen.
