Today I'm celebrating the publication of two more of my Fibonacci poems, Castle Walk and The Flying Dutchman, in that great specialist Fibonacci journal, The Fib Review which is published today and can be found with the following link:
The Flying Dutchman by Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847 - 1917) Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC
One of my two poems uses The Flying Dutchman as its starting point. The Flying Dutchman legend concerned a cursed sea captain condemned to travel the seas for eternity with a crew of ghosts, only allowed to come ashore once every ten years. Sometimes the ship is called The Flying Dutchman, other versions of the legend claim that the name applies to the unfortunate captain, punished for a serious sin, possibly cursing the Crucifixion. Wagner wrote a well-known opera on the subject but I was trying something much more modest, a very short syllable-count Fibonacci poem, using the Dutchman as a symbol for a turbulent state of mind.
I've been writing these challenging short-form poems since 2009 and many of them (well, 59 so far) have been published by The Fib Review. They are based on the Fibonacci Code, introduced into Europe in the 13th Century by the Italian mathematician/merchant, Leonardo Bonacci, known as Fibonacci who learnt about on his Arabian travels. The Fibonacci Code is a mathematical system were each number in the sequence is the sum of the two previous numbers. It is, believe me, much more flexible as a poetic form than you might imagine until you try it. Why not have a go.
Fibonacci (Leonardo Bonacci) c.1170 - c.1250
I can't leave you without giving you at least a taste of Wagner's music for The Flying Dutchman - here's New York's Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted with typical bravura by James Levine:
