literature

You and Me - Set Theory

Deviation Actions

Published: Dec 6, 2012

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Literature Text

{0=n-n}

"Truth," he said, "truth is pure multiplicity,"
and I suppose he was thinking of sidewalks—

I've been chasing concrete cracks round the city,
planting face, hoping for the growth of beanstalks

to clear out my heart-cracks of your name.
My cheek against the sun-warmed slabs of concrete

touches your cheek, sets my whole body aflame
with you—here, I see where earth and heaven meet.

{Ø{Ø,Ø}…}

My mathematician, if only you could sing
to me about the universe, my Cantor,

could tell me of the pavement to which I cling;
we are a set in stones, small and granular.

Though truth cannot be found in simplicity,
still, like sidewalk cracks, truth's in infinity.

This is a canzone for day 2 of DFC '12. [link]

11 syllables per line, rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef aa

Those two mathematical sets TOTALLY DON'T COUNT TOWARD THE NUMBER OF STANZAS just sayin'. I wanted to space the lines out to reduce the temptation to make this too singsong-y and keep the rhymes spaced out a bit.

Also written for my 100 poem project topic "qualia"

Used the idea of set theory. See Georg Cantor (sneaky use of his last name, no?) if you'd like more info. I don't really feel like trying to explain math at the present...

Hope you enjoy! I'm not entirely happy with this, but there you are, I suppose.

Also just realized I wasted the "chasing pavement" prompt for yesterday. Bummer.

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