Science Communication through Poetry training insight and poem – Jeronimo Cid

This course by Edinburgh Napier University was shared by Envision and immediately caught my eye. Although at first a bit reluctant due to the time commitment it ended being a great time investment and well worth the £50. It is just one hour every Tuesday for a month and all tasks were easy to find your way around, optional and rewarding to do. In the end you have the option to write a poem on a scientific topic of your choice, like the one below I did on the timings of leaf shedding being disrupted by climate change. Overall, a great change of pace from coding and made me grab the week with newfound appreciation. I recommend it to everyone who felt slightly intrigued by poetry at school but has had little contact since then.

World estranged, self embraced

Trees feel the sadness in their crowns

that winter left their leaves all brown

Winter, yes, you have read right

Nature’s cue each year’s less bright

 

With sunnier days and nights less cool

strained ethylene becomes poor tool

to help the trees know when to melt

their confused leaves when warmth is felt

 

The seasons stuck on climate change

will make the trees and you feel strange

When you feel cold, yet trees look warm

Your heart is swept in winter’s storm

 

How can autumn feel melancholic,

and winter still,

and spring renewing, and summer glorious

if attenuation precludes intensity?

 

If reassuring, solid winter tarries

nostalgic beauty of autumn lingers

unmatured renewal of spring rushes

and overstayed summer radiance scorches

How can we know where/who/why/what, we are?

 

Perhaps the world’s forever changed

and with the world we are estranged

Internal ire must reaffirm

the last stability within

 

With fiery heart and strenuous will

Your ancient vow you must guard still

To tell your children with no whine

Of deeper days before their time

 

Or softly, smiling, as winds drum

you do the work before they come

Embrace the chaos, take the chance

To feel new things as seasons dance

 

To feel blue joy, amber radiance

green nostalgia, crimson languor

as above, so below

as within, so without

 

By: Jeronimo Cid Vian

 

Selection of photos from the author.