(title) Fibonacci Inspired

(1) "ah,
(1) yes"
(2) she sighed
(3) and circled
(5) eyes down shoulders round
(8) suplicated rhythmic dancing
(13) articulated sweeping of souls to higher ground
(21) and, at that moment, body derailed from mind, train of thought lost, joy unimagined gained


© Copyright 1996 by David Alan Foster

Fibonacci, the Man:

Leonardo of Pisa, nicknamed Fibonacci, was a mathematician who lived in the thirteenth century (1175–1230). He was among the first to introduce Arabic numerals into Europe. For more than two-hundred years, his work “Liber Abaci,” was a leading reference in mathematics. (Any connection to Liberace?)

Counting syllables in each line, the sequence is: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on, the subsequent number being the sum of the previous two numbers. It would continue: 34, 55, 89, 144… (imagine 144 syllables!?). While Fibonacci didn’t necessarily discover this curious sequence, his investigations about the sequence resulted in it being named after him.

I found (in a book, I‘m no bloody mathematician!) that the Sequence appears if you measure the sides of the rectangle enclosing the Parthenon, then divide the long side by the short side! The pattern appears often in nature: count the bumps on a pineapple, the spirals of the yellow center of a daisy, a pinecone…