Monday Poetry Stretch - The Fib

In a few short days I head to Chicago for the 1st Annual Kidlitosphere Conference. I'm so excited about finally getting to meet many of the people I've been reading and who have visited my space on the web. One of the folks on the guest list is someone I am hoping to have some time to talk poetry with, and since he introduced us all to the Fib as a poetic form, I am choosing it for this week's stretch.

Greg K. from GottaBook posted his first Fib entry on April 1st, 2006. Was it an April Fool's joke? I think not. Here is an excerpt that describes the form of a Fib.

I wanted something that required more precision. That led me to a six line, 20 syllable poem with a syllable count by line of 1/1/2/3/5/8 – the classic Fibonacci sequence. In short, start with 0 and 1, add them together to get your next number, then keep adding the last two numbers together for your next one.

In the post More Fibbery, Greg talks about some of the rules he follows when writing. Here are a few of them.

Since I started Fibbing to focus on word choice, the one rule I've held myself to is "no articles in the one syllable lines." I also try not to use conjunctions, though part of that is that when I use them, I start singing School House Rock and annoy the neighbors.

You can read lots more about Fibs at GottaBook. So, just a reminder, here is the sequence for your Fib. Each of these numbers represents the syllable count for that line.

1
1
2
3
5
8

You can keep going if you like, just remember to add the previous number to the current line to get the next number of syllables.

Here are a few Fibs of my own creation.

Two
small
oval
treasures hold
the promise of song,
magic of flight, in hollow bones.

three
toes
clinging
upside-down
to jungle branches
moving slowly, sleeping, sleeping

So, do you want to play? What kind of Fibs will you write? Post your creation on your blog and then leave a link in the comments. Once we have some poems, I'll link them all here.