Birthday Cake and Fib Poems: Family Time
This week's theme of mathematical poetry was like a breath of fresh air. As I read through the poetic offerings in the Bridges 2021 Fib Collection, I felt a genuine sense of lightness. It was something I really needed — there has been a lot of heaviness around me lately, and that weight found its way quietly into my first two attempts at Fib poems:
Sleep
Sleep
Now
Sleep now
Rest your head
Wide awake all night
Exhaustion is my companion
The List
Work
to
Complete
to do list calling my name now
the book will have to wait again
Looking at the poems, I can see how the Fib form did something interesting — it gave shape to feelings I hadn't quite articulated. The constraint became a container for expressing the stress I've been living with lately. Despite the to-do lists and the sleeplessness, the evening had other plans.
I have two teen boys, aged 15 and 16, and part of our family ritual is sharing snippets from our day. Usually we get short answers; on a good night, details and some back-and-forth. Tonight I was excited to share what I'd learned about Fib poems. My 16-year-old surprised me by admitting he didn't know what the Fibonacci sequence was — this despite being in Pre-Calc 12! After a quick introduction to the sequence and the form, what followed was a full Fib poem writing contest, with the winner earning the right to choose what I would make for the next dessert. We happened to be eating leftover birthday cake, so the theme chose itself.
Cake
bunt
Cake
Amazing
Tastes so heavenly
Absolutely delectable
-Cameron McClellan
Untitled
Cake
Yum
Why not!
Eat it all
Chow down on frosting
It’s not just for birthdays is it?
-Ty McClellan
Throwback Request
Cake
Sweet
Sugar
Birthday boy
Request is honoured
The cake a frosted snake shape
-Kristie McClellan
My 16-year-old served as judge (declining to write, in true teenage fashion). After the verdict was rendered, my husband and I kept going — we'd caught the bug. As Sarah Glaz notes in her introduction to the collection, "Fib writing is addictive" (p. 469), and I think she's right. There's something about the interplay of constraint and rhythm that keeps pulling you back for another attempt. We chose travel as our next theme:
Where the Money Goes
Planes
Trains
Moving
Got to go!
So much to explore
See the world so full of wonders
-Kristie McClellan
Escape
Go
Far
Go near
Life is great away
You see something new everyday
-Ty McClellan
What strikes me, reflecting on the whole evening, is how quickly the form became a vehicle for genuine expression — for my heaviness, for my family's silliness, for our shared love of adventure. The mathematical structure didn't get in the way of feeling; it seemed to invite it. I find myself wondering: is there something about the Fibonacci sequence's closeness to natural growth patterns — the golden ratio, the spiral — that makes it feel instinctively satisfying as a poetic form? And for our students, who might arrive in math class certain that mathematics has nothing to do with their inner lives, could an experience like this — writing a Fib poem about something they actually care about — begin to shift that story?
Kristie, what a beautiful post! I love your poems (and your family's poems) and the contemplation sparked by the whole process.
ReplyDeleteMy 15 year old is asking for us to do another poem writing contest. I love it!
Delete