Poetry is something this science-y person knows little about. But April is National Poetry Month, so here's one that's plant related.
Epitaph
An old willow with hollow branches
slowly swayed his few high bright tendrils
and sang:
Love is a young green willow
shimmering at the bare wood’s edge.
William Carlos Williams
Found on John Lynch's blog http://scienceblogs.com/strangerfruit
In other news, I'm still miffed about what feels like a potentially great job opportunity that I must (must I?) let slip from my grasp. Still looking for a way that I could exist on that kind of dough, and thinking about what it is I want to do when I grow up. I usually imagine myself as a person who isn't severely career-driven. The only times in the last year that I have felt like I should be doing something else were when a faculty job in Plant Evolutionary Biology came up at a liberal arts college, and then with this postdoc.
The pondering will continue for a while, I guess. I have another month before the posting for the position actually closes.
Epitaph
An old willow with hollow branches
slowly swayed his few high bright tendrils
and sang:
Love is a young green willow
shimmering at the bare wood’s edge.
William Carlos Williams
Found on John Lynch's blog http://scienceblogs.com/strangerfruit
In other news, I'm still miffed about what feels like a potentially great job opportunity that I must (must I?) let slip from my grasp. Still looking for a way that I could exist on that kind of dough, and thinking about what it is I want to do when I grow up. I usually imagine myself as a person who isn't severely career-driven. The only times in the last year that I have felt like I should be doing something else were when a faculty job in Plant Evolutionary Biology came up at a liberal arts college, and then with this postdoc.
The pondering will continue for a while, I guess. I have another month before the posting for the position actually closes.
Here’s a poem from a Valentine's work party where we all espoused our love for plants. It’s from Nature Smiles in Verse: A Collection of Bi-Illogical Poems compiled by Bernal R. Weimer (1940).
ReplyDeleteBOTANY
There should be no monotony
In studying your botany;
It helps to train
And spur the brain—
Unless you haven’t gotany.
It teaches you, does Botany,
To know the plants and spotany,
And learn just why
They live or die—
In case you plant or potany.
You learn, from reading Botany,
Of wooly plants and cottony
That grow on earth,
And what they’re worth,
And why some spots have notany.
You sketch the plants in Botany,
You learn to chart and plotany
Like corn or oats—
You jot down notes,
If you know how to jotany.
Your time, if you’ll allotany,
Will teach you how and what any
Old plant or tree
Can do or be—
And that’s the use of Botany!
--Berton Braley
Thanks, b, I'm going to post it on the site - I like the whimscial poems the best...
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