Thursday, August 18, 2022

Come home

Leaves make sugar. Plants are the only things in the universe that can make sugar out of nonliving inorganic matter. All the sugar that you have ever eaten was first made within a leaf. Without a constant supply of glucose to your brain, you will die...It’s inescapable: at this very moment, within the synapses of your brain, leaves are fueling thoughts of leaves.
~Hope Jahren


I just ran across an article about how there aren't enough people with nature literacy. People are often divorced from their environment...we need more botanists and a more nature literate society in general. Today's poem is "Illumination" by R.T. Smith, which I think complements the article.
Botanists are disappearing – just when the world needs them most by Annika Geijer-Simpson:
Students are not introduced to the diversity of plant forms and functions at UK universities and are certainly not engaged with how fascinating and dynamic the floral world is. The result is a growing skills gap, with a looming shortage of professionals capable of effectively managing environmental projects. Well-meaning but careless management is not just ineffective, it can add to environmental degradation.

For example, planting thirsty species of tree in the name of capturing carbon from the air can deprive precious bog plants of much needed water. Recklessly cutting and strimming grasslands can wipe out populations of rare orchids.

Harnessed properly, there is no doubt that plants and the services they provide can help solve looming climate and ecological crises.
Read the rest here ILLUMINATION
by R. T. Smith

As if some monk bored
in the cold scriptorium
had let his quill

wander from the morning
Gospel, two tendrils
of wisteria...

read the rest here


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Leap of Dave has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Dave!

Linda's comment made me realize that there are two things I should have included:
1) A definition of illuminated manuscript ("illumination"): An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations.
2) The botanist shortage is true in the U.S. too: (from 2018) The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled, “Rhododendron? Hydrangea? America Doesn’t Know Anymore,” in which journalist Douglas Belkin documents how the U.S. is struggling to educate its biologists in plant identification. The National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management can’t find enough scientists to deal with invasive plants, wildfire reforestation, and basic land-management issues.

8 comments:

  1. Tabatha, yes to nature literacy! You might like the book I'm reading now, Jane Hirshfield's Ledger. I wrote about it today at the blog. The link to the Smith Poem seems to be linking to something else; I did find it at the Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=39860

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  2. The poem is wonderful, and the monk sprouting a tail brings a big smile. Yes to the natural literacy! Thanks for this post!

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  3. "Illumination" is an apt title, is it not? Wishing won't make it so but I am proud that the granddaughters are studying plants & insects they find in their own yard, thanks to their parents, also interested in what's right there! I had no idea there was a shortage of botanists. Sad news. I wonder if it's true all over the world? Thanks, Tabatha

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  4. Oh, my goodness. I love how you take a true fact ... facts and then illustrate them with this beautiful poem. My daughter is studying in London this semester and the campus has a garden so that the students can learn about growing things!

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  5. We need Plant-info ads all over. I was just at the Garfield Park Conservatory with my painting class this morning and I'm happy to say there were many human visitors there too. Lovely wisteria, thanks Tabatha!

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  6. I can really relate to the fervor of wisteria as mine is more than a bit invasive. I love the poem and the thought of wisteria whispering to the monk. I'll need to listen harder in my garden--perhaps there's a message for me there, too! Thanks for introducing me to the idea of nature literacy--such an important concept!

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  7. Oh! I forgot to say how much I love that quote from Hope Jahren. Lab Girl was fabulous!

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  8. I cannot tell you how much I love this small poem (and I notice now that often the very delightful poems you select are a bit longer than I would usually prefer--I have, for some reason, a very powerful bias towards poems less than a page). The kind you might commit to memory, if only I could commit anything to memory.

    Maybe in retirement I'll do a botany class, if only so that when my unschooled neighbors ask, I'll know what that is...

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