Differential

Noel Sloboda, PhD
Instructor of English
Penn State York
E-mail:  njs16@psu.edu

      Observing calculus
I found cardioids,
      heart in foreign territory     

      I had thought
without emotion.
      Imagine my surprise:

      division between math 
and art all I ever had 
      known; never       

       had I been 
one for numbers; 
      they did not 

       speak to me. Shapes,
however, subtle, 
      erasable, chalked 

      in a delicate hand, 
serving the moment, real,
      not bound to theoretical 

       immutability of figures,
had voice, long
      after the period 

      ended kept singing, 
an odd number 
      that was new but 

      felt familiar too
as I circled back 
      through the memory 

      of class, hand on breast,
and found I could 
      count the beats.

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