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This paper comments on a recent article "Revolutionary poetry and liquid crystal chemistry: Herman Gorter, Ada Prins and the interface between literature and science" by Hub Zwart (Foundations of Chemistry, published online: 10 July 2020), in which the author explores the influence of the liquid crystal research of Ada Prins on the epic poem Pan written by her long-time lover Herman Gorter. The present paper reviews the basic science of liquid crystals and explains the connections between the work of Prins and its influence on the poem. Other examples of the use of "liquid crystal" as a literary device are identified from renaissance poetry, and the uses of the metaphor in these poems are analysed from a scientific perspective. From these examples it is suggested that creative concepts from poetry may contain elements of substance that appear in hitherto unrecognised scientific realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mathematical poem attempts to distill a mathematical concept and present it in a literary or visually compelling way. This paper presents an outline of my own personal method of composing such poetry. The outline is elucidated via an extended meditation on the composition of one particular poem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma needs containment and recognition in order to be handled, and this project enabled the soldier to do both through the use of writing and poetry. This paper is based on the qualitative findings of an 18-month long poetry therapy group conducted in a veteran's center, and follows the progress of the veterans as they learned to use writing and poetry to focus on the present and reconnect to a broad spectrum of emotions they had been trained to suppress. The paper describes the theory behind the exercises and their impact on the veterans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central questions addressed in this article are: 1) Can writing poetry be both a process, and a product of research? and 2) How can writing poetry be therapeutic to the writer and reader? The author has developed his own theories of poetry as research and poetry as therapy by action research into his writing. He argues that in thinking about the process of writing verse, he has come to see that some poetry is a form of research, and way of knowing. He has observed and recorded ways in which writing has been therapeutic for both the writer and for the reader or listener. The article develops and supports the notion of poetry as research by referring to a growing literature on poetic enquiry. The author then analyses and illustrates how poetry can be therapeutic to the writer and to readers. In a similar way, the article draws on a different literature on poetry as therapy to support his argument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hans Magnus Enzensberger's lyrical oeuvre is characterized, indeed distinguished, by an intense and lifelong - or, to be more precise, career-long - experience and poetic discussion of contemporaneous history, both German and European as well as worldwide. This complex phenomenon spans the entire second half of the 20th century, extending from Enzensberger's first volume of poetry, Verteidigung der Wölfe (In Defense of the Wolves) of 1957, to his most recent collection of verse, Die Geschichte der Wolken: 99 Meditationen (The History of the Clouds: 99 Meditations) of 2003. The topics treated include ecological problems, the Cold War with its accompanying atomic threat, the German student revolt, Cuban would-be socialism, China, and Africa, etc., but likewise, if in retrospect, the Second World War as experienced by the youthful poet. In all those respects, Enzensberger, like no other lyricist, proves to be exemplary, perhaps unique, and both quantitatively and qualitatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]