I was excited to watch the video interview with Lisa Lajeunesse because she was one of the poets that I looked at/listened to in week 8 and I really enjoyed her work. I also liked that she added a telling on how the structure of each of her poems linked to mathematics, making the connection more transparent. I was happy to hear/see more examples of Lisa’s poems, poetry styles, and math connections in the interview. I am excited to try many of these - thanks for including handouts! I also appreciated hearing about her creative processes and inspirations in writing her poetry. The story of the chaos theory graph (~57:00) was very moving. Here is my attempt at a goldie: 

Devices

It sucks her in, 

instant and continuous. 

Headphones block out the world. 

Influencers and cat clips. 

Parent wait to connect, pets wait to play. 

Like being underwater, 

joyous, serene, your body feels light. 

Until you can’t breathe.  

While I was expecting to hear more about poetry, I was surprised to see so many connections made to music and other art forms too! I love the connections made with these graphs: Red being like human face symmetry, left to right; green being like a mountain reflecting on a lake; top blue is a combination of red and green, or rotational symmetry; bottom blue is a repeating pattern.   

Once I had these connections I was able to see them in the sculptures, music and other forms of art presented. Not having any music (theory) back ground I felt I was able to keep up because the “mathematics gave me a language for connecting.” (31:30) 

Having a very “traditional” math (education) experience, I continue to have the world of math broadened. Lisa mentioned that if you aren’t introduced to these things (connections between maths and arts) as a child you sometimes don’t reexamine them until triggered later in life. (~9:12) I feel lucky to be able to reexamine them now, and sad for those that will never have these triggers later in life and get to see a bigger picture of what maths is and can be in their lives. When we know better we do better, and I am excited to introduce these experiences into my mathematics teachings.

Thank you Susan and Lisa for this great interview! 

Reference: 

Lajeunesse, L. (2026, March 13). Lisa Lajeunesse interview [Interview by S. Gerofsky] [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/1173500795/9c65fde7a1?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci