TELL A FIB AND WIN A PRIZE

Tags

DaVinci Code, FIB, Fibonacci, Fibonacci number, Fibonacci Sequence, giveaway contest, Math, poems, poetry, postaweek2012

Meet Leonardo of Pisa. No, he wasn’t in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, but his sequence of numbers was ~ it was the key to one of the first clues.

Leonardo Fibonacci was an immutably brilliant Italian mathematician whose name graces the series of numbers called the Fibonacci Sequence.  I think reproducing rabbits may have been involved, but L.F. was no slouch when it came to field research.

In the Fibonacci sequence, each number is the sum of the previous two numbers, starting with 0 and 1. This sequence begins 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.  This can continue infinitely. If you’re fascinated by math (which I’m not) and want to know about the habits of rabbits, look here.  But if it’s the poetry experience you’re after, you’re ready to get started.

In a Fibonacci poem, the number of syllables in each line tracks the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. So, the first line of the poem has 1 syllable (or 0 for a beat of silence, if you’re a purist!), and then is followed by lines of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 syllables and onward as far as the poet wants to go. Writing one is a little like solving puzzle ~

0+1 = 1

1+1 = 2

1+2 = 3

2+3 = 5

3+5 = 8

5+8 = 13

8+13 = 21

After our annual nod to the WWWW Sequence, Ronnie shared her Fib. We were hooked!

Thought

Words

Verses

Page by page

Poets scribble on

Their addictions never sated

Matters not that few but other poets read their words

Press on, you noticers of ugliness and pain, of beauty in fields of daffodils.

So, there you have it ~ Ronnie told a Fib. And now, we want to do some Fibbing, too.  Join us and submit your Fibs in the comment section by June 7.  Write as many as you like. On any topic. We’ll read them and award a primo prize for the best Fib.  Readers and writers alike, weigh in on your favorites.

I cannot tell a lie ~ I think there are only good fibs and great fibs, so start fibbing!

Toni

5/31/12

CALLING ALL ANGELS

Tags

Memorial Day, postaweek2012, veterans

FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN

Tags

Berkshire, cellist, DPchallenge, Environment, Eugene Friesen, Great Barrington Massachusetts, Housatonic River, Massachusetts, nature, photography, postaweek2012, river cleanup, River Walk, Wendell Berry

It’s a simple affair. The River Walk is a greenway trail along the Housatonic River in the downtown center of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It’s the work of 2,300 citizen volunteers who reclaimed the beauty of a “working river” abused by years of industrial waste and neglect.

It’s something to celebrate. Just meander along, don’t check your watch. Surrender to the magic that is the Housatonic River.  It flows 150 miles, passes through the Berkshires and western Connecticut and empties into Long Island Sound. It’s just the place to learn from nature. You’ll love what you see.

The Housatonic River is the natural Main Street of the town of Great Barrington, flowing gently as the life stream of the town.

W.E.B. Du Bois, Great Barrington native

Along the River Walk is the W.E.B. DuBois River Garden. It commemorates the Harvard-educated civil rights leader born two hundred feet away from “the golden river in the shadow of two great hills.”  He’s the most famous son of this quiet mountain hamlet. He loved the river and so do I. A place to just be and take in.

 

Rescue the Housatonic and clean it as we have never in all the years thought before of cleaning it… restore its ancient beauty; making it the center of a town, of a valley, and perhaps-who knows? of a new measure of civilized life.

W.E.B. Du Bois, 1930

Sit and muse on a low stone seat dedicated to the memory of Comstock Small, River Walk’s most valued volunteer. He devoted more than 1,000 hours over nine seasons.  There’s a guy who knows how to be in the here-and-now.

The river has a calming effect. You can’t speed up the current~ it follows its own rhythm and invades you with the same calm.

Part of the River Walk’s beauty lies in the rain garden. A catch basin slows and filters the runoff from a storm drain using wetland plants. Then the water slowly soaks into the soil.

Tucked into the hillside, a concrete sculpted Flowform receives water (from the storm drain), aerates and purifies it before it enters the river.  It’s mesmerizing, this river full of tiny miracles that demonstrate the precise efficiency of nature.

in 1886, electrical inventor William Stanley developed the alternating-current transformer. Stanley ran wires across the river to light stores and offices on Great Barrington’s Main Street. So began the efficient, long-distance transmission of power.

Fifty shades of green ~ the verdant mood that is the River Walk.  A tapestry of plant life woven together with insects, animals and birds. River Walk is a playpen of sorts. I am just in awe at the business of life going on at my feet.

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It’s cherishing something local that everybody can have in common, and to me a thing like that can’t go wrong.  It’s just a little narrow walkway, scaled right, but it’s an enormously suggestive thing.

(Wendell Berry, commenting on the river walk)

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Eugene Friesen’s CD, the song of rivers, is a tribute to the river in his hometown of Fresno. Friesen donated the proceeds of the album to the volunteers who built a riverside greenway of natural reserves and parks.  The song, Cove, is one of my favorites.  The other ten on this CD are beyond epic. I am a megamonstrous fan of this cerebral cellist.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/efriesen2

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Like W.E.B. DuBois and Eugene Friesen, the folks of Great Barrington know a river doesn’t have to die.

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Toni 5/27/12