A mathematical love poem

Who says mathematics needs to be coldly analytical? Not since John Donne’s clever metaphor of a couple separated yet joined, like the legs of a compass, has love poetry been aligned with… tools, really. This is Martha Collins, her mathematical voice quivering with emotion. There are really 3 voices here. The first 7 lines are said by an analyst, the next 3 refutes (look for the all important word “BUT”) the previous lines. The last 4 shoots the invitation of love forward, via a pun via the line. Wait for the punchline.

And yes, having written this, I realize it’s a sonnet as well…

Draw a line. Write a line. There.

Stay in line, hold the line, a glance

Between the lines is fine but don’t

Turn corners, cross, cut in, go over

or out, between two points of no

return’s line of flight, between

two points of view’s a line of vision.

But a line of thought is rarely

Straight, an open line’s no party

Line, however fine your point.

A line of fire communicates, but drop

Your weapons and drop your line,

Consider the shortest distance from x

To y, let x be me, let y be you.

–Martha Collins

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