Poetry and mathematics

https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/4/vol6/Growney/MathPoetry.html#Nemerov

“Figures of Thought by Howard Nemerov

Poet Laureate of the United States from 1988-1990, Howard Nemerov (1920-91) served as a combat pilot during World War II. Here are lines of a poem Figures of Thought that gives the essence of a mathematical model.

	To lay the logarithmic spiral on
	Sea-shell and leaf alike, and see it fit,
	To watch the same idea work itself out
	In the fighter pilot's steepening, tightening turn
	Onto his target, setting up the kill,
	And in the flight of certain wall-eyed bugs . . .

If you do not have a clear picture in your mind of this curve, you may wish to explore the algebra and geometry of the logarithmic spiral and see how vividly it illuminates Nemerov’s poem.”