Fibonacci Poems

Fibonacci poetry is a literary form based on the Fibonacci number sequence. The sequence begins like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. In order to find the next number in the sequence, you add the two preceding numbers. The sum of these two is the next number, which then is added to the one before it to get to the next number, and so on. This is how it works:

1 + 0 = 1
1 + 1 = 2
2 + 1 = 3
3 + 2 = 5
5 + 3 = 8
8 + 5 = 13
13 + 8 = 21
etc.

The Fibonacci sequence appears often in nature as the underlying form of growing patterns. For example, conch shells and sunflowers follow the pattern as they grow in a spiral formation that increases as it moves outward.

Fibonacci poems can embody the number sequence in two ways, either in numbers of syllables or in numbers of words. Some people write their poems so that each line contains the number of words of its place in the sequence, and some use the sequence to determine the number of syllables in each line. Both methods create very visual poems that display this naturally occurring growth pattern on the page (or screen).

So far, the writing of Fibonacci poems seems to be more popular among mathematicians than among poets. There are other mathematical poetry forms that can create interesting results, like the Oulipo school where writers use complicated constraints and algorithms to generate creative writing. Fibonacci poetry isn’t nearly as complicated as many traditional poetic forms like the sestina or the villanelle.

Fibonacci poetry is still very new but getting more popular. It has been featured in the Books section of The New York Times: “Fibonacci Poems Multiply on the Web After Blog’s Invitation,” by Motoko Rich (April 2006). There are several Web sites dedicated to Fibonacci poetry where people post the poems they write; one such site is Fibetry.com. The math/art journal Hyperseeing featured an article about Fibonacci poetry in its April 2007 issue.

~Georgia Luna Smith Faust

Note from your Guides:
Georgia has kindly given us two of her own Fibonacci poems to post here as examples:

• “Fearing Space”
  
• “In Cliché”

She prefers to follow the sequence by counting syllables rather of words per line. You are invited to contribute your Fibonacci poems, whether syllable-based or word-count-based, either by posting them in our Poetry Forum or by sending them to our reader submissions page. We will select the best of the submitted Fibonacci poems and gather them into an About Poetry anthology.