We’ve been told that all of nature follows the Fibonacci spiral, from mathematics to flowers to snails. I’ve been convinced for quite some time that my mind follows that same spiral pattern. When I close my artist eyes I see patterns spiraling wildly round, moving from tight coils of exploding color out to galaxy-sized clouds. My writer’s mind does the same, whether writing essays for class or grocery lists. I spiral in and spiral out till my thoughts finally come full circle and fall into place. It does make writing a grocery list feel very epic.

I toss and turn 
waiting for an alternate universe 
to send me words 

till a poem slowly 
unrolls in my mind 

Fibonacci spiral 

—Short-listed Finalist in MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2

Peggy Bilbro’s

roots are in the U.S. West but she has lived in the southern U.S. for more than 50 years, both of which help shape her writing. Her poetry reflects her life-long interest in the large and small miracles of the world, from dust-bunnies to star-dust, from mouse holes to black holes. She finds pleasure in the creative challenge of translating those miracles into poetry. Her writing has been published in Contemporary Haibun Online, Drifting Sands Haibun, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and Modern Haiku.