An ekphrastic poem inspired by the Conrad Shawcross piece “Schisms” from his exhibition “Cascading Principles” at Oxford University, Mathematical Institute *
There are 20 equilateral triangle faces;
And therefore invoking Euclid,
All the angles are necessarily 60 degrees.
At each of 12 different vertices
Five of these 20 triangular faces meet.
A vertex is a reference to a point, and
“A point is that which has no part,” says Euclid.
There are only 5 Platonic solids and this
Polyhedron is striving to become one of them.
Furthermore, there can be no more than 5
equilateral triangles meeting at each point–
For, if 6 such triangles met at any vertex, the shape
Would no longer be a 3-dimensional polyhedron.
It would become a flat two-dimensional plane; and
will tessellate, as its vertices sum 360 degrees
But 5 angles times 60 degrees equal 300 degrees–
it is still 3-dimensional.
It hasn’t quite achieved its
Perfect polyhedral state of being.
It’s not yet seamless; it’s split with deep chasms–
And I want to peer inside:
Looking within the cracks is like
looking up the skirts of infinity.
And this is what I saw:
It will become an icosahedron.
But even more so and
Because Nature favors it so,
Over eons; Gravity will smooth
And smooth it, rounder and rounder.
It is a sacred, spherical cow named Mu
Slouching toward sublimity to be born.
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