Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog

Whilst perusing my latest copy of SEED magazine, I came across an interesting poetry structure not unlike a haiku. What I’m talking about is “the Fib,” which is a poetic structure based on the Fibonacci sequence; the lines consist of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 (and so on) syllables. While SEED published the “fib” poetry of Jason Zuzga, I thought I’d try my hand at them in my very own forum right here.

Shyness

Fish
dive
deeply,
mouths agape,
fins proud and ragged,
filtering the oceans apart
until shimmer-hooked and then flopping in boat bottoms,
when gills heave, gasp, drowning in air; eyes glaze
like dropped marbles, clouded and cracked, but holding.

(More under the fold…..)

Ego

She
will
nod as
you pass her
and you both will know
you are young and raw, half-bitten,
spitten in disgust like fruit picked before its season.

Heaven

Dead
leaves
jump back
on the trees,
a reverse whirlwind
and an impossible sunset
seeking their origins, the life from whence they came.

Comments

#1 JD
June 28, 2006

Tool did a very nice song called Lateralus with a pattern in the singing based on the fibonacci sequence.

Black
and
White are
All I see
In my infancy
Red and yellow then came to be
Reaching out to me
Lets me see

etc etc…
#2 Ponzicar
June 29, 2006

Now I’m curious about what the record number of lines is for a fib poem. Lines 8 and above will quickly go from run on sentences to strangely formatted novels.
#3 noise
June 29, 2006

I dig it. Structural approaches to composition seem to reap benefits – but then all approaches do. Mind you, this approach has velocity.

And velocity is exciting…
#4 Nick Anthis
August 3, 2006

I love it: Fibonacci sequence-based poetry. Now, let’s see a non-scientist poet come up with something like that!
#5 David Ng
August 3, 2006

That’s great. You should submit some of this stuff to the SCQ
#6 Shelley Batts
August 3, 2006

Hmm, ok then, I will!
#7 HL
October 25, 2006

I find some of the fib alluring but not especially creative. There is, for example, the golden spiral for which it stands:

You might like to visit my blog where at least one
Saturday, June 03, 2006
The Genderation of Two & More

Wake up Honey before Ants Smell the Roses

employs a geometric progression and if you keep looking through the dark stack (archives) Fibnacci makes an appearance too.

My poetic word playground is scientificly based <-)