It’s the fourth day of Oulipost Project, and we have a Fibonacci Sequence Variation.
Select an article from your newspaper and create a poem using the words that correspond with the numbers in the sequence. Your poem will take the form of first word, first word, second word, third word, fifth word, eighth word, thirteenth word, etc. You can continue until you’ve run out of words in your article or until you’re happy with the poem’s conclusion. The word sequence up to 6765 is: 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 2584 4181 6765. Since most newspaper articles are a lot shorter than that, I chose to do 4 sequences, but only one reached as high as the 610th word.
Better Late Than Never, American Robin (Photo credit: kdee64)
OH! Breaking news! Just sighted first robin in the tree outside my window! What a welcome picture he makes!
And back to the poetry business: Here are my four Fibonacci sequences from today’s Ottawa Citizen:
Computation of the 7th number of the Fibonacci sequence using the recursive algorithm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I.
Scientists.
Scientists have uncovered
vast, the little, the rings,
big do.
Rudimentary, from subsurface.
II.
Peering, peering
into the reaches solar.
a, the, of system.
Can, little-studied.
Far. Little.
III.
NASA.
NASA is suspending
work
except
Station, Space Crimean.
Teleconferences went.
IV.
There’s—
there’s a lobster.
Ontario.
Be now County wayward, Kevin.
We’re tweeted!
CAS
April 4, 2014
fibonacci_avatar (Photo credit: Beats People Movement)
Sources:
• Dunn, Marcia, The Associated Press, Ocean found inside Saturn moon Enceladus, Ottawa Citizen, April 4, 2014 (A7) print edition
• Astronomers discover pink new world at the outer reaches of the solar system, By Alicia Chang, Associated Press 3- 26-14 sidebar Ottawa Citizen Apr 4 digital edition
• Associated Press NASA halts work with Russia except on space station, Apr 2, 2014 sidebar Ottawa Citizen Apr 4 digital edition
• Lobster dies after rescue from St. Catharines, Ont. parking lot, By Lauren Strapagiel, Postmedia News April 3, 2014, sidebar Ottawa Citizen Apr. 4 digital edition
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Quillfyre 
So, so cool! I like that the article you chose is scientific so it goes well with the whole idea of fibonacci. The verses sound like messages that aliens would send to earth lol!
Yes, quite coincidental though. The first article was about an ocean found inside Saturn’s moon, so I thought something poetic might emerge but mostly not. Moon didn’t make it in, nor did ocean. Later I realized the subjects worked well with the constraint.
And then I saw the lobster story and thought what the heck!
Loved your little Ontario response – complete with lobster AND Kevin. What else do we need for Ontario fun?
Oh, now I remember, we also have to Tweet it!
lol. Barb. It was a fun note to end on for sure!
Love these! The repetition….scientists/scientists//NASA/NASA It evokes that breathless neurosis into the piece: “Houston, we have a problem.”
But my favorite is the last one: There’s—//there’s a lobster. Consider the lobster! Indeed!
I think the last one is my favourite too, for its unexpected fun. Thanks for commenting. These are all unfamiliar territory to me, a month-long venture outside the box.
Stunning! This turned out really, really good.
Thank, Reiser. I kinda liked them but wasn’t sure…
It’s wonderful how the first three work together – what gems!
Well, I chose three related articles, although with the Fibonacci sequence results, still no assurance that the words would work. Thanks!
Nice ending, too!
It’s neat when the words fall so nicely for the last line, given the almost random nature of the selection!