Fibonacci sequence

 

Fibonacci sequence

                     White-lipped snail on limestone (Cepaea hortensis)

In the Fibonacci sequence each number is discovered by adding up the two preceding numbers. It begins with 0 or 1, and proceeds 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so forth.

The Fibonacci numbers were described in Indian mathematics around 200 BC, but were named after Leonardo of Pisa, known also as Fibonacci, who introduced the sequence to the West in 1202.

Fibonacci numbers appear in nature, in flowers, leaves, shells, fruit.

In Fibonacci poetry, the objective is to follow the Fibonacci sequence in the number of syllables to be written in each line. A  Fibonacci poem is typically six lines with twenty syllables

I enjoyed the challenge of writing a poem in Fibonacci form a long time ago. It was about a snail shell. I also reversed the sequence, so the syllable count is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1.

 

Snail
Shell
Empty
Abandoned
Once mollusc’s retreat
Cast aside for eternity
Unless another entity
Chances upon it
Fancies it
Moves in
Lives
There.

 

I was looking for a subject for doggerel. I didn’t really find one!

Snail bails out,
Snail can’t shout,
Lunch for bird,
How absurd.

Of course, snails don’t bail out of their shells. They hatch with a protoconch, a minute, soft shell, and their shells continue to grow until they reach their adult size. They need a diet rich in calcium to continue developing strong, healthy shells. If they have a poor diet (never thought I’d ever write that!) their shells will suffer, becoming thin and sometimes even deformed. If a snail’s shell is destroyed, it cannot grow a new one and it will die from dehydration.

Where do snails find calcium? Do they drink gallons – oh, all right, millilitres - of milk, crumbs of cheese, tiny omelettes, petite fish?

With their little rasping tongues, they feed on things like limestone, chalk, dead wood, lichen, old bones, and empty snail shells.

Is the concept of cannibalism alien to snails, and is it cannibalism if they’re just consuming an old house? They will eat their squashed, deceased friends and relatives if the opportunity arises, for they are a rich source of protein, so cannibalistic behaviour can be attributed to them. In any case can snails understand ‘concepts?’  

 

Lunch for a snail:
Lime and some chalk,
A rasp of kale,
 A lick of wood,
Abandoned shell.