The Trap

Written for Paul Brookes' ekphrastic challenge - one poem a day in April 2021. This is written in the "Mirrored Fib" form, based on the Fibonacci Sequence. The Fibonacci Sequence is a mathematical sequence seen often in nature, and many spider's webs have the spiral form linked to it. See the bottom of the blog for more details.

The art work for this day is "Reticulation #2" by Kerfe Roig

 

 

 

The Trap

Web
lies
waiting
poised to host

a careless victim;

struggling in vain to save its life.

Would I watch, wondering whether I should intervene 

if anything were caught within that sticky trap, break apart the web, or simply snap

the thinnest threads that hold the insect in its place, to free it from its jail, liberate 
before Arachne wins the deadly race, but perhaps

its translucent wings are broken,

and, deprived of all

nutrition,

spider

would

die. 

Tim Fellows 2021

 

The Reverse Fib Form

In Mathematics the Fibonacci Sequence is formed by starting at 0 and 1 and adding the previous two numbers together to form the next. 

(0),1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,....

When made into interlocking squares, a spiral form appears from it as shown below.

This spiral, and the sequence is seen all across nature. Flower petals, sunflower centres, spider webs. As the sequence approaches infinity, the ratio of consecutive numbers approaches a number called the Golden Ratio. This spiral, and the golden ratio, are used across art and design to make aesthetically pleasing shapes. The Acropolis, Taj Mahal, and the Mona Lisa all have this concept built in. 

 

For "The Fib" poetry form, we write a poem using the number of syllables in the sequence for each line. This gets unwieldy from 34 upwards. Stop when it makes sense to! To make it more challenging, reverse the sequence to make "The Mirrored Fib" form as in my poem above.

 

1

1
2

3

5

8

13

21

21

13

8

5

3

2

1

1