The Pythagorean Form of poetry takes the western appropriated haikuism into the mathematical realm.
Sensei David Bogomolny recently offered the experimental American Paragraph
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/106476380/posts/3685069384
This is a derivative of A Ginsberg’s American Sentence, Ginsberg’s response to haikuism. Poets were freed from seasonal cherry 🍒 blossom affectation and 5 7 5 clutter.
The Pythagorean however extends poetic form into mathematics. While other invented forms play with meter and syllable counting here formulae are used as the base. A first? Perhaps.
There are many mnemonics for recalling formulae. Take the case of Pythagoras’s theorem stating that “In a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse side is equal to the sum of squares of the other two sides“. They’ll be variants.
Generally a² plus b² = c² and in numbers at its simplest 3² + 4² = 5²
just using the base numbers without squaring we have
One short line [3]
Even side is next [4]
Third, each side squared summed. [5]
copywrite © thehobartchinaman
As haiku was bastardised into western thought and syllabic structure, arguably losing much of the gentility of its eastern origins, so too mathematical progression needs bend to needs of poetic meter
At its basic form Pythagorean Poetry has a syllable structure:
3, 4, =5
Dog slumbers, 🐶
Then raises head 🤔
To munch on carrot 🥕
In its slightly more accurate mathematical form
9, 16, +25
Wuhan Virus makes us stay inside,
Rock climbers seek out Candlestick, and Organ Pipes its basalt slick,
They stay at our place overnight, tale telling with slack mouthed delight, and suddenly our lives seem so trite.
copywrite © thehobartchinaman
We hear the news
They’ll be transported to parenthood
Life starts again in utero, for millennia t’was always so, but now from test tubes small cells grow.
copywrite © thehobartchinaman
editor’s note 1 : first line thought [9 syllables] juxtaposed with second line [ 16 syllables] separate but related thought, combined in 25 syllable third line mashing thoughts together. This is starting to sound like the invented rules over at shadowpoetry.com.
P’rhaps they could consider adding in the Pythagorean when next they revise!!
Look forward to your contributions to this new format. Please send to http://www.thehobartchinaman.wordpress.com
AS A PRIZE : The first 37 entries will receive a scanned copy of an out of date Domino’s pizza voucher by email or via the blog site, so be quick and don’t miss out.
editors note 2 : Our North Queensland correspondent with excellent technical credentials pointed out some flaws in the basic mathematics of the initial post. Thanks Steve, for pointing these out. thehobartchinaman is so grateful for the advice and made the necessary correction.
Steve, Please let us know if you would like the scanned Domino Pizza voucher, or a scanned Harvey Norman wrap around advertising page from Hobart’s Mercury newspaper as a thank you!
The Hobart Chinaman 
You must be logged in to post a comment.