"Cycling Forward" by John Reinhart

Cycling Forward

John Reinhart

I

dreamed

I was

explaining

the Fibonacci

poetic form to my father

while he ran beside my bicycle, training wheels gone; 

my first self-generated breeze

tasting of mountains

yet to come,

waking

to 

write

a

book,

tribute:

fatherhood

through a temporal

prism: I am now my father

racing to keep up as my son’s bicycle careens

into high school, college, futures,

impressions, beauty,

darkness, too;

only

life 

knows

how 

to 

pedal

fast enough –

momentum, balance,

moving forward, wherever that 

leads, whatever that means, convoluted by twists and

hills, gravel and breakups, loss and 

punctures, air gone out

of his sails;

the moon

will

rise.

Poet's Notes:  Form is often seen as contrary to creativity, anathema to many modern poets. Count me in that group when form is for form's sake. The beauty of modern poetry is the wealth of form and history upon which we can draw. No longer constrained by what is acceptable poetry, we can write concrete poetry that insenses politicians (Aram Saroyan's "Lighght," for instance). We can write metered sonnets, linked epic limericks, or just write.

The pinnacle of all this, for me, is when I play with a poem and it settles into a particular form. It's not jammed into a shape, nor is the shape the defining element. There is a point where the form helps draw out the meaning just behind the words. Even when form is not obvious, the strongest poems hold together with certain tools, whether rhythm, sound, form, or story.

Linda Addison recently reminded me of the Fibonacci poem form, and it has been a good exercise in form with flexibility, the marriage of mathematical truth and imagination.

Editor’s Note:  Information about the Fibonacci poetry form may be found here https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68971/1-1-2-3-5-8-fun.  Information about the Fibonacci code may be found here https://www.livescience.com/37470-fibonacci-sequence.html.