What
are numbers? What are we counting when
we count numbers? The status of numbers
is one of the great mysteries of existence; a mystery that philosophers have
addressed down through the centuries.
In
a number of posts I have talked about how the process of counting syllables
unites the poet with the rest of humanity.
A poet counting syllables is entering into the same process as the store
clerk counting change, as a musician counting beats or measures, as the cook
counting the minutes while the bread is baking, as the mathematician solving an
equation, as the worker marking his calendar for his vacation, etc. Counting syllables is a profoundly human act.
The
book, “Hidden Geometry of Flowers”, suggests that there is a larger context that
can inform what we are doing when we are counting syllables. It is the context of nature as such. The suggestion here is that nature as a whole
is participating in counting, in numbers, in ways that are mysterious, yet also
evident to an attentive observer.
The
instantiation of numerical forms in nature is observable in many
dimensions. But perhaps the most
attractive manifestation of numerical forms is found in flowers. The book “The Hidden Geometry of Flowers:
Living Rhythms, Form and Number”, by Keith Critchlow, is a stunning
presentation of this view. The
geometrical patterning of flowers is used to suggest that the world of numbers,
and the world of nature, are intimately related. Critchlow is suggesting that flowers
instantiate and participate in numbers and that this is the source of their
beauty.
The
book is visually stunning; a real feast for the eyes. The author has spent many years photographing
flowers, and plants in general, and uses these photographs to illustrate his
thesis regarding the intimate connection between numerical structures and
flowers. The illustrations are
reproduced on heavy stock paper and this does make the book somewhat pricey; at
$50.00, and a paperback, it is an expensive book. Yet it is also a keeper; one that you can
refer to over and over again. From this
perspective it is not overpriced.
One
of the things I like about this book is that it presents its view rather than
arguing for its view. What I mean by
that is that the author allows plants, flowers, and the processes they present
to speak for themselves. I mean that the
book is not a logical, or deductive, treatise that starts from hypothesis and
then deduces conclusions. Rather, the
book is a call for us to look at the world around us, and plants in particular,
in a different way and see how that can transform us.
Critchlow
at times draws a connection between the numerical relationships found in
flowers and plants and those found in music.
He doesn’t use poetry to illustrate his thesis. But I found the connection easy to make, to
draw out from the author’s presentation.
What
the book suggested for me is that when poets engage in counting, in shaping
words according to a syllabic form, they are engaging in the same kind of
activity that a flower engages in as it unfolds in accordance with the formal
parameters of its type. In a way I am
saying that flowers are also engaged in counting. I don’t mean that flowers are in some manner
saying to themselves, “One, two, three, . . .”
I don’t really know how flowers go about counting, but I am suggesting
that the world of nature is moved to unfold in accordance with numerical
realities, and that these realities are present in the human mind as much as
they are present in a seed, in a bud, in the petals of a lotus or rose.
Each
type of flower instantiates certain geometrical relationships; and, in
addition, unfolds in accordance with a certain rhythmic patterning as it grows
from seed, to plant, to flower. This
happens again and again, as each flower blossoms in each succeeding
season.
In
the same way, when someone writes a Tanka in accordance with the 5-7-5-7-7
syllabic structure, the ‘blossom’ of the Tanka is seen once again in the
world. In the same way, when someone
composes a Tetractys with the 1-2-3-4-10 syllabic structure, the ‘blossom’ of
the Tetractys is seen once again in the world.
Just
as flowers instantiate certain numbers and relationships between numbers, so
also a poetic form instantiates such a world of number and numerical
relationships.
And
it is all based on counting. Clark
Strand wrote that when we count 5-7-5 we are united with the mind of Basho and
all the Haiku poets of the past. But
Critchlow’s books offers the suggestion that we are uniting with the mind of
nature herself when we engage in this kind of patterned counting. The same reality that gives rise to roses and
lilacs gives rise to Tanka and Tetractys, to Sonnets and Fibonacci.
It
is this kind of repeated patterning of form which unites the formal poet with
Great Nature. Although counting is the
most ordinary of human activities and has the virtue of keeping the poet
humble; yet counting also unites us with all of nature and the patterns and
processes happening all around us.
At
the beginning of these observations I asked “What are numbers?” Many mathematicians believe that numbers are
real, that they are not human inventions.
This view implies that we discover numbers and their relationships and
that numbers are not conjurations of the human mind. I tend to agree with this point of view; it
is a kind of Platonism, or, perhaps, more rooted in Pythagoras. From this perspective, counting of syllables
is a door to the realm of numbers; a realm that expresses itself in countless
natural forms. When the poet shapes
words in accordance with a numerical patterning, by counting syllables, the
poet takes a step into this world and at the same time serves this world and
gives expression to this world: Just as
flowers do when they unfold in accordance with the patterning of their type.
The
book, “Hidden Geometry” is not directly about prosody or poetry. There is no chapter devoted to the
application of numbers in a poetic context.
But I think poets in general, and syllabic poets in particular, will
find this book of assistance by demonstrating the primal nature of the basic
process the formal poet uses when composing a poem. It will help the syllabic poet make the
connection between what they are doing when composing a poem and what they
perceive in the world around them. It
places the shaping of words into this larger context. I found the book applicable to many aspects
of poetry composition. Perhaps you will
as well.
The
Hidden Geometry of Flowers:
Living
Rhythms, Form and Number
By
Keith Critchlow
Floris
Books
ISBN:
9780863158063
$50.00
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