Why Bother With The Fibonacci Poem?
Where Did It Start?
As most readers of The Fib Review know, the Fibonacci poem is a new phenomenon made popular by Gregory K. Pincus on his Gottabook blog. His invitation for readers of his blog to send this unique six-line poem created a blogosphere-wide gold rush of Fibonacci poems. Mr. Pincus’ blog invitation, the responses he received, and the subsequent article by Motoko Rich in the April 14, 2006 issue of the New York Times that discussed this new phenomenon brought the Fibonacci poem to the forefront.
What Is It?
The Fibonacci sequence is a mathematical sequence in which every figure is the sum of the two preceding it. Thus, you begin with 1 and the sequence follows as such: 1+1=2; then in turn 1+2=3; then 2+3=5; then 3+5=8 and so on. For literary purposes the sequence stops at 8 using each number as a set of syllabic counts. The sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. Each number represents the number of syllables that a writer places in each line of the ‘poem.’ As a literary device, it is used as a formatted pattern in which one can offer meaning in an organized way. A close distant relative might be the Japanese haiku in which one of the traditional haiku tenets is the syllabic count of each line. In English, the traditional count has been a poem of three lines. The first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 syllables, and the third line is 5 syllables. The haiku in English has matured and changed over the years to reflect more of a focus on content than an exact syllabic count, but the syllables help to keep focused in a way that disciplines the poet.
Submissions:
You may submit to The Fib Review by sending your Fibonacci poems, narratives, or experiments to musepiepress@aol.com. Make sure that what you send is your best work. Please also make sure to type in the subject line “For The Fib Review.” Submit the poems only in the body of the e-mail in plain text. No submission e-mails will be accepted with attachments. If for some reason your work is long and attachments might be necessary, contact the editor, Mary-Jane Grandinetti, at the above e-mail address first so that a plan can be formulated to receive your submission.
The Fib Review accepts submissions year-round and will publish accepted submissions in its annual to be sent to readers between June and August.
Read Issues 1 & 2 onlines at http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/issues.html.
R.G. Rader, Editor/Publisher
Muse-Pie Press
73 Pennington Avenue
Passaic, NJ 07055
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