Two Fibs

Grass Grows

Grass

grows

I can't

believe it.

Grass grows, and I smile,

my mouth lipsticked in pretty pink.

It is already five months since you died and left me.

Life goes on, as we're told. Even I go on, into a morning of birdsong and grass.

The Solitary Life

I

am

sitting here

filing my nails

and simultaneously reading my computer.

It's a wet day outside; there's a hum of white noise around me.

The cats curl on the bed, my coffee is at my elbow, I'm warm. The solitary life, too,  can be cosy.

In response to a prompt from Verse First, at Poets United.

Adapted from Wiipedia:

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers or Fibonacci series or Fibonacci sequence are the numbers in the following integer sequence: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21, etc. or 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21, etc. By definition, the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1 (or 1 and 1) and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.

In the above poems, the first works on syllable count, the second on word count.

Fibonacci poems are also known as fibs. And I like to pun.

Fibonacci Experiments

Family

He 

phones 

tonight,

my birthday;

we talk a long time.

He's my friend as well as my son.

(His father is dead and his brother is lost to us.)

We 

talk 

tablets,

mobile phones —

and his new girlfriend.

At Easter they'll come to visit.

(Small core of family left, we're glad of each other.)

Wet City

My 

love's

drowning:

Venice is

flooded and under

water — that city of water —

of sparkling, of singing water.

Now too much water

washes her:

Venice

my

love.

Continuing

We entered the dark of the moon.

Roses were growing

unseen but

their scent

waft-

ed

fill-

ing

the night

with silent

messages of life

continuing to spend itself.

Fibonacci poems (aka fibs) are syllabic, based on the fibonacci numerical sequence in which each number is added to the preceding to make the next. Zero is understood at the beginning, so the syllables then go: 

1 

(1=0=) 1

(1+1=) 2

(1+2=) 3

(2+3=) 5

(3+5=) 8

(5+8=) 13

Theoretically one could keep going, but in a poem that would get more and more unwieldy. It's usual to stop at 8, but not uncommon to continue to 13. And then, as you see, one can vary the form by doubling, reversing, etc.

Submitted for Poets United's Poetry Pantry #124

Fib*

Dave—
why
do I
get stupid
when I’m around you?
I become a 15-year-old
on her first date and terrified of not being liked
on closer acquaintance. Bear with her, please. She’s just 
   shy and awkward, stunned by your beauty.

April 2006


* This name is nothing to do with telling lies! It's the name for Fibonacci poetry (aka Fibetry) based on the Fibonacci mathematical sequence applied to syllable count per line. The number of syllables in each line of the poem is the sum of the previous two lines: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on. (The last two lines above are really one line, which is too long to fit into a one-line space.)

In this particular poem the first line doubles as title.