Crossing the Equal Sign

Marion Cohen is equally mathematician and poet. Using mathematical metaphor, she touches deeply into issues of life and heart. In each poem she crosses the equal sign on many levels, beginning with visible points, lines, numbers. crossing over to life's invisible-yet-tangible delights and frustrations. and crossing back again with insights gleaned from these reflections. (Barbara E. Reynolds, SDS, Mathematics and Computer Science, Cardinal Stritch University) Marion is one of the few poets who can successfully explore the join between the literary and the mathematical sensibilities, and no one does it as well as she. Jet Foncannon, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Drexel University Millay wrote that "Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare," but Marion Cohen looks on Beauty doing a slow strip-tease. Her poetry aches and anguishes and anticipates as she chronicles what it is like to almost - but not quite - (but perhaps truly) unveil Mathematics and gaze upon her lovely face. Annalisa Crannell, Department of Mathematics, Franklin and Marshall College, Co-author, Writing Projects for Mathematics Courses: Crushed Clowns, Cars, And Coffee to Go. Far from being a cold, calculating robot, 'a mathematician who is not something of a poet will never be a first-rate mathematician' (Weierstrass, 19th century). In this delightful book, Marion Cohen reminds us of this oft-forgotten human and emotional side of mathematics. Gregory Chaitin, Author of Meta Math! The Quest for Omega .elegaic evocations enhanced by mathematical metaphors. John Allen Paulos, Math Dept, Temple University, Author of Innumeracy and Once Upon a Number .highly original Anne Hudson, Poetry Editor of Facets