Tuesday, December 5, 2006

close closer closest: A Chance Meeting



step
freeze
velvet
with a sting
wild ninja bug
my toes curl up in the cool sand
wishing for shoes to keep you from leaping and biting

This little darling is a Velvet Ant which is actually a flightless female wasp (Dasymutilla sackenii). I found her on the beach near the Calaveras River in the Sierra Nevada foothills. She froze when I approached her which made for great picture taking but I knew she WANTED to leap and bite me. Evidently, their sting packs quite a wallop. Glad we decided to leave each other alone. If you look at a larger version of the picture, she has a rather intense look in the glossy black eye.

The poem is an extended Fib. The basic concept is that you use the Fibonacci Sequence as the syllable count mechanism. Start with 0 and 1. Add them together and you get 1. Now add the last two -- that's 1 and 1. Next line is two. Add the last two -- 2 and 1. Next line is 3 and so on. Usually Fibs stop at 8 syllable lines but this one needed more room to grow! :)

I wrote this poem for the Close Up Challenge at One Deep Breath. Thank you for your efforts, Susan and Jennifer!

8 comments:

susanlavonne said...

I love how your fib is so descriptive, amusing, and literally made me curl my own toes while reading it :-)
What a cool photo too!

Anonymous said...

I agree - my toes are curling inside my winter boots!

Thanks for the education on the extended fib, and very good use of the form.

Well done :)

Tammy Brierly said...

Nice fib! I need to go find my boots now ;)

LauraHinNJ said...

Oh I like this!

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of a Fibonacci Sequence before. Interest concept and I'm grateful that you took the time to explain it because I like to try new writing sytles. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I'm really grateful that my poetry is moving people -- even if it is to curl their toes up away from creepy bugs! :o

The Fib poems were made popular by the guy at GottaBook (see my links). He posted one and BOOM! Suddenly tons of people were doing them. Like Haikus, they are deceptively simple but can be complex and difficult.

JP (mom) said...

"Wild ninja bug" ... absolutely brilliant! Love that line :)
much peace, JP

Susan Gets Native said...

Hey, poetry is meant to move us, right?

And yours moved me right away from my computer screen.
Eek!