Saturday, May 13, 2023

The Secret Limit of an Infinite Grid

Anything real includes it all

Combinatorics
Likes to pose problems
As colors on maps

With certain constraints.
Yes, this is a game,
Packing coloring,

And, as with all games,
It’s arbitrary,
Seen from some angles,

Revelatory
Of the way things are,
Seen from another.

Did you know you can
Tile infinity
With a finite set

Of numbers?
Did you know you can
Keep any numbers

From touching themselves
For infinite tiles?
The secret answer

Is fifteen. Fifteen
Will suffice to tile
An infinite grid.

Well, so? Twenty-six
Letters are enough
To tile English words,

Code the whole language.
But are they enough
To code the whole mind

Wandering around
Like a lost pilgrim
In all that language?

Computing won’t help
Here—algorithms
Can’t get real traction.

Birds discuss being
Birds that sing. Yama
Rolls his smoky eyes.

Hillsides of orchids
Extend to the dead.
You can’t calculate

All the things you sign.
But fifteen will tile
The world of the mind.

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