Sunday, January 25, 2009

January Poetry Prompt 2 - Fibonacci Poems

Science isn't my strong point (I'm still in awe of the fact that music can emerge from a thin silver disc...) so it's probably better that I direct you to the Wikipedia article on Fibonacci numbers.

Not that you have to read it to write a Fibonacci poem though. Here are the basics:

The first number of the sequence is 0, the second number is 1, and each subsequent number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers of the sequence itself, yielding the sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.

So a Fibonnaci poem is made up of 6 lines as follows:

1 syllable
1 syllable
2 syllable
3 syllable
5 syllable
8 syllable

And what's the point, you might ask?

Well, with any strict form, it gives the left-hand side of the brain something to fuss over (order) while the right-hand side of the brain can play a little.

I played with this:

All
night
a storm
shakes the house.
This morning sunlight
through the palm crowns like a blessing.

Maybe it's not enough... too much description, not enough significance? But it's a good exercise to encourage you to choose words that really matter, words that have to try and carry as much weight and information as possible.

And I'm sure you'll come up with some better ones.

Lynne
x

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maths
was
never
my strong point
so forgive me please
if I end up with tetracyts.

A
man
is lost
as day breaks
he puts on his tie
she said black brought out his dark side.

Eileen

Brigita said...

I haven't tried this before but you have to start once, right? So herea re my two attempts at the Fibonacci poem:


love
hangs
above
me like a
cold cloud on the sky
no stars to lead, no moon to see


just
a
girl yet
so very old
the world she saw, things
she did, cannot sleep, cannot flee

Anonymous said...

.
I
feel
as if
someone has
moved the horizon
and I can nibble the moon

Anonymous said...

Hoar
frost
covered
the garden
when he went away.
Icicles formed around her heart.

Nicky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicky said...

These were fun, infuriating, but fun :)

Here's mine:

One
by
one, she
plucks petals
counting as they fall,
crushed beneath his feet as he leaves.


They
kiss
beneath
thunder clouds,
feeling lightning lit
raindrops crash onto sunburnt skin.

And just for fun...
In
the
Tardis,
Doctor Who
roams the galaxy
fighting evil daleks through time. :)

Anonymous said...

do
you
carry
a smile
in your left pocket
for days when life lets you down

flybynight said...

What
flies
skywards
falls back down,
like the hilltown's sighs
in that soft grey column of rain.

flybynight said...

My
life
ended.
It was like
a train passing by,
an accummulation of thoughts.


Oil
slick
puddles,
gleaming with
trapped dragonfly souls,
couldn't catch their weightless bodies.

Rachel Green said...

Pale
sun
wanly
shining through
skeletal poplars
but sparrows still sing of springtime.

Anonymous said...

Late
sun
over
Findhorn Bay
my blue bicycle
re-birthed as a bright butterfly.

Eileen (echulme@hotmail.com)

Nicky said...

And some more:

New
red
wellies
splashing in
puddles. Jumping high,
landing hard, I create tsunami.

New
shoes
creaking
as I creep
into his bedroom.
I hope his parents don’t hear me.

Soft,
pink,
twirling
ballet shoes
pirouette, whirling
faster and faster around me.

Anonymous said...

Lynne ,

This form has a lot of similarities to Haiku, especially seen in your example. Is that right?

Thanks,

Lu

Lynne Rees said...

Lu said: This form has a lot of similarities to Haiku, especially seen in your example. Is that right?

I think this is more about counting syllables, Lu, while english language haiku have more pressing concerns, e.g. juxtaposition, brevity, concrete imagery, suggestion.

The idea that haiku need to conform to a 5/7/5 syllable count is a misunderstanding due to original english translations of the japanese. Maybe I'll do a post this month on haiku, although for a small form there's an awful lot to say about it!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Lynn for your reply.

When I say "similarities to Haiku" is that I got a haiku feel from reading some Fib poems posted here, not because of the syllable count.

This is a very informative, lovely place. I'll come here to visit more often.

Thanks again.

Lu

Lynne Rees said...

You're welcome, Lu. And yes, you're right about the haiku 'feel' to the example I gave. Maybe I could pare it down and see if I can make it into one.

Look forward to seeing you here again.

Anonymous said...

It
all
builds up
to this one
pentasyllabic
line. Inevitability?

-Neil

Lynne Rees said...

Hello Neil, and thanks for posting.
I love it! Nice to get humour, mathematics and philosophy into something that's only 10 words long.
:-)

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Lynne.

I like your site, and am having a look around. I'm new to poetry, and I like what you're doing here. I got a link here from Poets Graves.

My game is wordplay (specifically anagrams).

I have an anagram/poetry hybrid project on the go, which is blogged here:

http://nramsay.blogspot.com/

(hope you don't mind me posting a link).

Comments on this are gold-dust.

{off now to add your site to Favourites}

Kind Regards,

-Neil

Lynne Rees said...

Hello again, Neil.

An anagram poem. Blimey - that is a challenge! I can imagine, possibly, taking all the words in a (short) poem and re-arranging them to make another... (with perhaps some license on changing words from nouns into verbs etc) but all the letters... Hmmmm. Fascinating though.

I really do think it's fun to play with language, and imposing restrictions on ourselves as writers can often have amazing results. Giving the ordered left-hand side of the brain something to work on can grant the right-hand side freedom to jump into the unknown and make some wonderfully creative discoveries.

Good luck.
:-)