Fibonacci Poem

Not much time to write, as I’m in the midst of the annual Orff Conference. The good news is that six out of the six workshops I’ve attended have ranged from good to excellent, the kids from The SF School knocked it out of the ballpark in their concert today, largely conceived of and organized by my forever colleagues James and Sofia, but with room for me to teach and lead two pieces with the kids who were in 4^th grade when I retired now in 8^th. Just had my ritual Friday night dinner with Rick, another old friend and colleague, sadly missing Paul, who had to leave early for a family matter. So many teachers I’ve taught are here (many of them teaching workshops!), as well as people from around the country who I only get to see once a year but always enjoy. 

 

One of the workshops (taught by two of those above students) was about the Fibonacci Sequence and was based on a child-sized look at this intriguing mathematical structure. The short version is that the sequence is generated by adding each previous number— thus, 0-1-1-2-3-5-8-13. That’s where we stopped, but the sequence itself continues to 21-34-55-89-144 and beyond. First described around 200 BC by an Indian mathematician/poet named Pingala, it seems to have been “discovered” yet again by an Italian mathematician named Leonardo de Pisa, also known as Fibonacci. His work was based on the breeding of rabbits, but once he published it in 1202, others began to note its appearance in the natural world—in “the branching of trees, the arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit sprouts of a pineapple, the flowering of an artichoke and the arrangement of a pine cone’s bracts.” (From Fibonacci Sequencein Wikipedia— check out this entry and by amazed by the complex formulas that you’ll find there).

 

Because the workshop teachers were sharing how they used this with kids in a creative context, they kept it simple and artistic. We were asked to write a poem following the first numbers (of syllables) from 1-13. Then alone or in small groups, we created a piece/song/ dance sequence based on both the poem and the structure. Like haiku’s 5-7-5 syllabic scheme that can appear limiting, but actually activates our creative muscles, this proved to be an enticing challenge. The first few words of the poem—“I am grateful for…” were given to us and we had to finish the poem.

 

So here is mine below. Now to remember to live it.

 

I 

am

grateful

for this breath

this body, aging

though it be, this still-beating heart

this nimble mind, this rare chance to finally know love.