From: Sandeep Bhagwati (sandeep.bhagwati@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Apr 11 2011 - 19:01:59 EDT
What a storm of interesting discussions ! Thanks to all for inspiring
responses.
Perhaps as a coda:
I came across this poem by John Ashbery.
SONNET: MORE OF SAME
Try to avoid the pattern that has been avoided,
the avoidance pattern. It's not as easy as it looks.
The herringbone is floating eagerly up
from the herring to become parquet. Or whatever suits it.
New fractals clamor to be identical
to their sisters. Half of them succeed. The others
go on to be Provençal floral prints some sleepy but ingenious
weaver created halfway through the eighteenth century,
and they never came to life until now.
It's like practicing a scale: at once different and never the same.
Ask not why we do these things. Ask why we find them meaningful.
Ask the cuckoo transfixed in mid-flight
between the pagoda and the hermit's rococo cave. He may tell you.
Best
Sandeep Bhagwati
Concordia University Montréal
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