Fibonacci Poem

A poem that follows the Fibonacci sequence

The Fibonacci spiral can be found in Black-eyed Susan. Photo © Gordon Schenck

A Fibonacci Poem

I am participating in a Fibonacci Spiral Poetry Challenge by a poet I follow on Substack. Here's the challenge:

Write a poem that follows the Fibonacci sequence for the number of words in each line. The first six lines have 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 words, and then it spirals back down 5,3,2,1, 1.

Here's the full sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1.

So here is my Fibonacci poem

praireyerth
grasses
and butterflies
in the wind
that blows incessantly over land
that once was part of a vast seafloor
whose creatures could easily comprehend
what it is
to go
completely
extinct

And this is the AI overview of that poem:

AI Overview

The poem uses imagery of the prairie's fleeting life, like grasses and butterflies blowing in the incessant wind, to reflect on a deeper geological history and the impermanence of existence itself. The verses connect the present-day prairie, once an ancient seafloor, to the creatures that lived and died there long ago, contemplating the nature of total extinction.

Prairie life and the wind

A contrast of movement: The prairie's constant wind is contrasted with the delicate, transient life of its inhabitants. The butterflies, despite their apparent fragility, must adapt their flight patterns to survive in a windy environment, while the grasses bend endlessly with the breeze.

A vast, unchanging force: This imagery mirrors the relentless and unchanging force of time, which has swept across the land for eons, long before today's prairie life existed.

A vanished seafloor

Geological history: The poem references that the land was "once part of a vast seafloor". Much of the Great Plains, including the area of Chase County, Kansas, described in William Least Heat-Moon's book PrairyErth, was once covered by the Western Interior Seaway.

Fossil evidence: The limestone bedrock found in these regions contains fossils of ancient marine life, providing a tangible link between the present prairie and its oceanic past. The text PrairyErth explores this deep history by using geological survey maps to structure its narrative.

The nature of extinction

Comprehending the unimaginable: By contrasting the ephemeral lives of butterflies with the fate of ancient sea creatures, the poem creates a powerful metaphor for the profound reality of total extinction. For the prehistoric marine life, their entire world disappeared, a comprehension that is beyond the scope of any living creature today.

A quiet meditation: This contrast asks the reader to meditate on a grander scale of time. The wind that shapes the prairie now also erodes the stones that hold the last traces of a completely forgotten world, a silent, ongoing process of disappearance.

I think that the AI thought more about this poem than I did writing it. But maybe it reflects the years of my experience that went into it that an AI generator could not create.