Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Synesthesia


Daniel is a remarkable man (three point 14159265)
he has asperger’s and epilepsy (3589793238)

and has the wild gift of synesthesia (4626433832)
which means he sees numbers as colors (7950288419)

in his book he says numbers are my friends (7169399375)
always around me… each one is unique (1058209749)

days all have colors too.  Wednesdays are blue (4459230781)
so is the number nine, and loud voices (6406286208)

today he’s reciting the constant Pi (9986280348)
he’s been at it for over five hours now (2534211706)

that’s over twenty-two thousand digits (7982148086)
I feel like I’m staring at the ocean.




In honor of author Daniel Paul Tammet, who on March 14, 2004, set the European record for reciting the digits of Pi, to 22,514 digits.  Remarkably, this  record ranks sixth in the world.  The human mind is amazing.

7 comments:

Brian Miller said...

this is pretty fascinating...i work with an aspie kid and they can be pretty amazing...also intriguing some of the other 'enhancements' that see m to come along with them as well...cool capture...

Laurie Kolp said...

Reminds me of Rain Man... very effective and affective, Andrew.

http://lkkolp.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/dont-feed-maps-to-the-goats/

De Jackson said...

Andrew, I love this, especially that amazing last line.

Buddah Moskowitz said...

How fitting that someone of such immense talent is written about by someone else with immense talent.

"I feel like I'm staring at the ocean."

You are, Mosk

Tashtoo said...

Fantastic! The numbers bring your words to life...an unbelievable feat in my mind...but he stands 6th in the world!? Amazing subject=Amazing write!

Mary B. Mansfield said...

Great poem! And yeah, I can see how both Wednesdays and loud voices are blue.

Kathy Bischoping said...

What an unusual topic! I like how you included numbers in your lines.