Poem: "Purple Sea Urchin"

[dave_bonta]

Purple Sea Urchin

 

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

The urchin uses its spines as feet; for it rests its weight on these, and then moving shifts from place to place.
Aristotle, The History of Animals

Spines have more uses
than one would think.
Sure, they defend against sea otters
and the voracious stars.
Ball-jointed, they swivel to catch
pieces of floating algae
for the shorter, two-
fingered pedicellines to convey
to the bottom-scraping mouth
& its five sharp pyramids.

 

They are digging bars.
A purple urchin can excavate
a hollow into solid rock.
If it starts too young, it may become stuck,
entombed. Some never dig at all,
& wander slow as time
through the kelp forest.

The spines sharpen a kind of vision, too,
like squinting eyelids
bringing into focus
the images collected by the pedicellines
& the tube feet, which are furred
with light-sensitive molecules.
The more numerous a sea urchin’s spines,
the sharper its vision—& yet
it has no brain.
It is all brain.
And it lacks eyes because it is all eye,
revolving in its self-made socket
for as long as a century,
risking death from the removal
of a single spine,
unable ever to shut.

*

Two years ago, I started a series of poems at my blog intended for eventual publication in an illustrated bestiary, which an artist-friend expressed interest in collaborating on. I was inspired by a couple of examples on my bookshelves, both beautifully illustrated: Appolinaire's Bestiary and An Ark for the Next Millennium (a.k.a. Album de zoologia) by the contemporary Mexican poet Jose Emilio Pacheco. My ambition however was to pick species that are in some ways fabulous according to our own conceptions of what's normal and make the poems as scientificaly accurate as possible. I also attempted to imagine the world as it would appear to each of the creatures I wrote about.

For a variety of reasons, this project is on the back-burner for now, but I definitely plan to return to it. One problem, if it is a problem, is that by far the most outlandish creatures live in the ocean; almost anything on land seems tame by comparison. Another, potentially more serious problem is that I have no first-hand knowledge of any of these creatures. But there are so many photos and videos available on the internet these days -- one can form a much more complete impression of a species than was possible in pre-internet days. Especially if one has access to online databases such as Biological Abstracts to supplement the riches available on the open web.

"Purple Sea Urchin" illustrates as well as any of the poems in the series, I think, how approaching a scientific subject with a poetic mindset opens one up to the sheer, jaw-dropping wonder of it all. Had I been researching a paper for a college class, for example, I strongly suspect that the dry prose format would've acted to domesticate and diminish that wonder. Poetry preserves the mystery at the heart of reality.

Comments

Cool!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I really like science poetry. I've written a number of poems about weird critters, sea and land.

You might consider releasing your collection as an ebook. Self-publishing is a lot easier and cheaper these days.

Re: Cool!

[dave_bonta]

Well, I do hope to publish this in illustrated form eventually, as I mentioned, but yeah -- these days one almost has to produce an e-book version as well. Self-publishing is definitely an option, and one I respect as a reader and sometime reviewer. But I'd say that the difference between self-publishing and micropublishing can sometimes become pretty slight, as with my latest publication, a book of cartoons, which was a cooperative production with a friend in London. I was happy to let her handle all the technical aspects of converting to epub and mobi formats, though. So she was the publihser, in the final analysis. And the poem I'll be sharing tomorrow is from a collection due to be published by another micropublisher who also likes to work closely with authors.

[alee_grrl]

Poetry preserves the mystery at the heart of reality.

So very well said, and so very true. I love how this poem conveys both the scientific facts and wonder of them. Your science poetry is quite fun and I'm enjoying it a lot.