Fibonacci Poetry (or The Fib): Poetic Forms

Fibonacci poetry was founded by Gregory K. Pincus last year as a 6-line poem that follows the Fibonacci sequence for syllable count per line.

For the 6-line poem that means:

1 syllable for first line
1 syllable for second line
2 syllables for third
3 syllables for fourth
5 syllables for fifth
8 syllables for sixth

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Play with poetic forms!

Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).

Click to continue.

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Here's an example of Fibonacci Poetry (or The Fib):

"Confession"

My
first
poem
was not a
Fibonacci or
even an unrhymed sestina.

There are variations where the Fibonacci expands even further with each line, but to understand how to accomplish this, you need to understand the Fibonacci math sequence of starting with 0 and 1 and then adding the last two numbers together to add to infinity.

0+1=1
1+1=2
1+2=3
2+3=5
3+5=8
5+8=13
8+13=21
13+21=34
and so on and so forth...

Anyway, those lines can easily get more and more unwieldy the more you let them expand.

Here's how my example might expand, for instance:

"A Longer Confession"

My
first
poem
was not a
Fibonacci or
even an unrhymed sestina;
my first poem was not a sonnet or triolet,
a ghazal or haiku; my first poem wasn't free form, either: I don't know what it was.

Yeah, 21 syllables is a lot of syllables for one line. So, there's another variation that has taken flight in making Fibonacci poems that ascend and descend in syllables.