Writing Fibs

A new form of poetry has taken off the U.S. in the last couple of weeks. Gregory K. Pincus, A Los Angeles screenwriter invited blog readers to send him Fibs* - sixline poems that use a mathematical progression known as the Fibonacci sequence to dictate the number of syllables in each line. The idea spread like wildfire across the internet, and it has been estimated that more than 1,000 Fibs have been posted since the beginning of April.

The New York Times explains:

The Fibonacci progression is a mathematical formula that starts with 0 and 1 and then continues to add numbers that are equal to the sum of the previous two numbers. Thus, the first seven numbers in the sequence are: 0-1-1-2-3-5-8. ... To write a Fib, a more complicated version of the classic, highly constrained haiku, the poet composes a six-line poem that has the correct number of syllables in each line corresponding to each digit in the sequence. (The real first line of each Fib is silence.)

The sequence apparently features in the Da Vinci Code, and shows up in the nautilus shell, knitting patterns and the compositions of Bartok.

Now me, I don't understand maths at all and managed to fail every single maths exam that life ever threw at me (honestly!), but the creative part of one's soul can't resist squeezing itself into self-imposed limits. Here's my very first one.

I
don't
care that
i'm not math
matical, I just
want to write a poem in this form.

Now it's over to you. Compose one or two while the boss isn' t looking and post them up. The best Fibber buys me lunch at a fancy restaurant of their choice.

(*Hmmm. I'm just wondering if a better name for the form might not have been the Pincushion, immortalising its inventor.)