Why is higher maths
so full of the names of men?
Godel’s theorem,
Cauchy sequence, Hilbert space,
Gaussian, Hamiltonian, Lagrangian.
Highschool calculus wasn’t like that.
The derivative was not
the Newton function,
the integral not
the Leibnitzian.
Irrational numbers, imaginary numbers,
complex and transcendental numbers
all have names I can think with.
What was a Hilbert space again?
Last week I looked it up
I thought I took it in
but now in my brain the meaning
has come unhooked
from the word
I look it up again
but the image persists
of Hilbert:
not an abstract space,
angles, distances, lines
in n dimensions,
but a middle-aged gent in round specs,
a floppy hat on his bald head,
chalk-dust on his professorial
trousers, his beard hairs
pointing to nowhere.
First published in Creatrix 48, January 2020
An outtake from my PhD project A coat of ashes
Jackson 