Fibbing

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Fibbing

So this Fibonacci poetry structure is interesting (and the latest poetry pentathalon challenge). I've been intrigued by the variety of form and how poets have experimented with it. Like this simple, startling poem:

on that one day

at
work
listen
sound of war
hiding we sing psalms
after all our dogs harmonize

David E. Howerton

and this more complex one:

Leaving Shelter

No
more
talk of
honey or
coin, these States remain
remains harvested from our hands,
blood-brushed paths and busted concrete covered with things once
given with love; survival is a necessity
no longer found in microwave
meals, crushed pills, mirrors,
on TV,
no, now
it
is
found
in
instinct,
avoiding
extinction; growing
is a lifestyle to master – if
we are mindful our offspring will be cultivated
in patience, giving scars etched on streams, fields, and flesh a
death from screaming time to reflect
upon simple things
like breathing
or of
the
wind.

Alexandra Hoey.

I wonder what are other people's experiences of fibs? And what do you think about more strictly formualic approaches that define a fib poem as having to have six lines, or having to start the number sequence at 1, and whether you go by the number of words or syllables?
It seems I just can't help looking at a rule and immediately thinking about how I can break it.

Here's a nice example of one that starts with 13.... Bereft There is a consuming hollowness between the sheets, and silence kills by the threats of its stalking. You've packed your heart well in the white foam granules, so it won't suffer damage when moving from one reality to the next. But it sneaks out, searching for soft rhythms of sleep, something of warmth, something solid yet supple to lean its hopes on in the night. The hairline crack of loneliness on its surface splits to the quick, to gouge canyons of grief in which you cast your sanity. Lois Elaine Heckman

 

A break from tradition can't hurt. It's a finger-counting process that reminds me of being at school aged about three but it's also triggered some good ideas. Restrictions are there to be broken, though.

 

I like the structure, although I think the key to it is making those one/two syllable lines count. It's easier to use the 8/13 syllable lines to move the poem on than it is with those shorter lines. It's been a fun challenge so far!
Dying The man torn by hate I think of family as my life fades away watching for the light of heaven only to be answered with deafening silence. - Chinobus -

- Chinobus -

I think the discipline is good for improving lazy, sloppy thinking to which I am quite prone. It is a tenous line, like a tightrope, to manage the tension between working within structure and having the freedom to be creative and reinvent/subvert the rules, all while being cool and witty (or at least vaguely interesting). Hmmm it's going to be a long night :) Chinobus, your poem is lovely, haunting.

 

I think the discipline is good for improving lazy, sloppy thinking to which I am quite prone. It is a tenous line, like a tightrope, to manage the tension between working within structure and having the freedom to be creative and reinvent/subvert the rules, all while being cool and witty (or at least vaguely interesting). Hmmm it's going to be a long night :) Chinobus, your poem is lovely, haunting.

 

Is there an echo in here?

 

or a parrot?

 

To be brutally honest, most of my work either falls out of my arse or gets piled into a heap and set ablaze while I prance around it singing "Burn, Baby Burn!". Also, if you noticed every sentence on that poem above adds up from one to seven words. Just like the fibb sequence; neat huh? - Chinobus -

- Chinobus -

To be brutally honest, most of my work either falls out of my arse or gets piled into a heap and set ablaze while I prance around it singing "Burn, Baby Burn!". Also, if you noticed every sentence on that poem above adds up from one to seven words. Just like the fibb sequence; neat huh? - Chinobus -

- Chinobus -