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Fibbers

02/02/09
by Nick Holloway

London Word Festival is pushing a great thing right now called the Fib, a 6-line poem based on the Fibonacci sequence. If it's been a few years since your last maths lesson, that's the one that goes 0, 1, 1, ,2, 3 and so on, with each successive number being the sum of the previous two.

A Fib follows the sequence for it's syllable count - 1 syllable in the first line, same in the second, 2 syllables in the third, all the way up to 8 syllables in the sixth and final line. The result is a little like a haiku:

Why
cry,
Woolworths
stalwarts, when
there is Poundstretcher
selling just as much crap, cheaper?


See what I mean? That one I lifted from LWF's competition to find the best Fib, where a winning entry equals free passes to the festival in March. Mercy poet Nathan Jones is reprising his collaboration with art-rock disco demons Wave Machines at this year's fest, all the more reason to go in for them tickets.


COMMENTS

    • Nathan Jones

    Yes I have now. I hope I win tickets for the Nathan Jones gig. He’s gorgeous!

  1. That was exactly my day. Pizza from the night before. Gone black around the edges. Did you enter it in the big prize draw? (The poem, not the pizza.)

    • Nathan Jones

    Oh
    Why
    and then
    How, but what
    about after that?
    Lunch! Something from last night, warmed through.