Math and Poetry Can Intersect

I am not very good at math.  Math can be super interesting, but I just never got it.  However, that does not mean that I gave up on it.  Instead, I try to learn mathematical things here and there and am excited when something new enters my brain quarry.  There is a common joke that goes like this, "I did not understand math, so I became a(n) XXX", where the XXX could be "lawyer", "artist", "counselor", or about any other occupation short of mathematician, engineer, or accountant. In an effort to celebrate the two worlds of math and language, I attempted an experiment.

This is an example of structured verse.  That means that there is a defined structure to the poem.

More specifically, it is an example of syllabic verse.  That means that there are constraints on lines or stanzas based purely on the number of syllables.  

In this poem, I constrained myself to a specific number of syllables in each line.  The number of syllables per line forms a sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, and 144.  Each line has the number of syllables as the summation of the prior two lines.  

In math, this is known as the Fibonacci Sequence.  It gives us the golden ratio, phi, which is around 1.618.  There are tons of things in nature that adhere to this sequence, many of them are subjects of various poetry (like ripples on the water or spirals of seeds in a sunflower).  The sequence continues forever, I stopped at 144 because I am fairly certain nobody would want to read my line of 1,346,269 syllables (and 144 is quite a few syllables for one line)...

The poem itself makes fun of the process of creating the poem.  It also ends with a pun because the 144 syllable is "gross", which means "unacceptable, wrong, or nasty", but can also mean twelve dozen (which is equal to 144).  It also contains some poetic license with regard to grammar and punctuation.  

You can try placing arbitrary constraints on yourself while writing a poem.  This is not normally something I do, but stretching the mental ability can be fun and rewarding.  Plus, it means that I was not as concerned with the content of the thoughts expressed, but more on the content of syllabic structure.  I hope you enjoy this and try to do some fun syllabic verse yourself. 

Note: I double spaced between lines since some of the longer lines wrap to the next line on the screen.  The character at the beginning is meant to make you take a breath, or pause, indicating zero (it is also the symbol for a whole rest in music notation). 


Title: Pinned Bunnies




Rules

Games

Lead to

Theories

One-point-six-one-eight

Ratios glinting, glittering 

Structural technicalities breed lost entropy

Highly Limiting creativity while birthing something golden, unique, your own

Challenge current status, question anything, pile on emotive expressions, until cathartic intentions overwhelm and consume you

Spiral upward to reach new heights of space, of time, of meter, rhythm, and motion until the arc of blue marble and atmosphere dwindle into the prospect of prophetic  nothingness whispered from angels in one-note songs

Artistic manifestation inherently desires experimentation in order to continue thriving and virally spreading from creator to host and yet another host inspiring parasitical interpretations, diversity arising from breadth of varied lives’ stories observing in hopes to find art is no place for ego

Syllabic content now reproducing like Fibonacci’s rabbits placed in pins, each waiting a month to reach maturity and age to perfection again until resources deplete and only the strongest among them will continue to be remembered and quoted carefully, and the most well-read professors will sit passing the days digesting the intent of each placed word-part striving for its place in the cluttered palace of universal thought and knowledge until reaching the conclusion that sometimes the proper end might not justify the means, making the ending quite gross

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