How I was born

I was born in the axon hillock

Of an unassuming neuron

Who decided to play with

A few sodium channels.

 

And when she started pulsating

And oscillatiing with the

Ionic imbalance scintillating through her,

She decided to hire a babysitting neuron

To take care of me as I played.

 

As I wreaked havoc

On some unsuspecting ions

That strayed nearby,

I became too much for her to handle.

And then she started the cycle

Of pushing me away.

No baby sitter could handle my current,

And as they passed me around in a circle,

I was curiously named by my mother as

'Thought cycle'

 

When she thought I had grown big enough,

She sent me off to the Papez

School of emotions.

It is a big circular palace,

With many large halls.

 

There, I got my first proper training

At the hippocampus,

And, on graduating with flying colors,

Was gifted a few

Cool accessories

Which they described as

"Long term memories".

 

I was then on my way to the thalamus,

Where I learned how to be fast,

And disappear when disturbed.

They made me run to the

Singularly named 'cingulate' hall

For advanced classes on emotion.

 

And when I finally finished my

Emotional education,

I was rechristened

'Thought'.

They apparently didn't like the 'cycle'.

 

I was then guided to the two friends

Wernicke and Broca,

Who were famed for always arguing

That the other was more important.

They were long term colleagues

With offices on the opposite sides

Of the same cerebral hemisphere.

 

I first went to

Meet the cheery old

Mr.Broca, who was never short

On banter.

He gave me

A few high quality fabrics for tailoring

And some cool looking sunglasses,

And sent me along the

Arcuate highway

To meet Mr.Wernicke,

Who stitched a perfect suit,

And, wanting a piece of the action,

Suggested I call myself

'Words';

He then sent me back

To Mr.Broca

With a tie, 

Who then proceeded

To give me a few words of solid advice,

And dusted the grime

Off my shoulders,

And, renaming me one final time,

Sent me out via the white mater,

To the peripheral nerves,

Who obeyed him

And stimulated many muscles

To deliver me

To the outside world.

 

What, you ask, did he name me?

'Poem'.

 

Author's Note

I thought I should add a few descriptions here, to those who aren't accustomed to reading so much useless medical jargon!

The axon hillock is the most electroconductive part of a neuron - a nerve cell. Nerve cells conduct electricity by opening and closing channels that allow Sodium inside the cell.

The Papez circuit is the circuit in the brain which is responsible for emotions. It belongs to a particular system called the Limbic System. Wiki gives a reasonably good description of it : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papez_circuit

The Wernicke's and Broca's areas are the speech recognition and production centres respectively. The Wernicke's area is responsible for forming intelligent replies, and the Broca's area formulates the appropriate words, and sends the output to the nerves that modulate speech.

Reviews

[Alana]

Haha! Oh, I ADORE this! Incredibly clever, incredibly witty, and incredible period. I honestly want to print this off and show it to my psych prof. I don't really have anything constructive to say, you simply smashed the world of science with the world of art, and I love it.

[Undying Glory]

love this one a lot, man, this is awesome work. i've always loved biology, and since hardly anyone writes poems like this, this was real interesting and intriguing. this was also unique, as i doubt anyone has ever thought of writing about the development of an idea from biology's perspective. great job

[Sweet_pale_cacophony]

Ah!! now this was a better way to learn anatomy of brain than the regular pneumoniacs that one uses as a medical student,very witty and intelligent.It might be a bit too technical for an outsider who is not into medicine but then you have left an elaborate afternote.

[Ruth]

Wohoo!
Now thats f**k cool! lol
The strangulating process made clear and bam! A poem of excellent talent arrives!
Awesome work hon
xx

[Richard Williams]

Clever, creative, enchanting. I think many neurons met right in the middle of the corpus callosum for a big party.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Simply Marvelous and educational, I am in love!

[Rose Tyler]

Very good! Well written, witty and shows you are well educated; also incredible. I liked reading the descriptions and showed how the words for a poem go from one place all the way down to your fingertips to become a poem. You put art and sciences together and not many people can pull that off well, but you have! Excellent!

[Awdures]

As a Biochemist, I'm happy to say I got the medical jargon!! Very clever how you intertwined it so intelligently so the whole story in the poem is diligent and makes perfect sense!

I thoroughly enjoyed the poem, prose poem-new form for you?

[Dinesh Sairam]

Thanks for the explanation, lol.

[Augustus]

I read this yesterday but couldn't find the time to review it... It is a fine poem, this...all the jargon makes it quite humourous. I do believe the author's note is useful.. :)
Coming to the poem itself...its a really clever piece of work, because you have described the entire (metaphorical) physiology of a poem in real physiological terms! You have portrayed the stages of development of a poem admirably. The "thought cycle" which condenses into a "thought" after a blending with emotions...and then moving on to the "body" of the poem, which obviously is made of "words" and finally delivered in its final form...a poem born...
One of the few occasions I think, when you have employed free verse...And it has been used well...
This one does not perhaps carry the elegance of your former writes but it belongs to an entirely different genre and must be judged differently.
I admire this write for its uniqueness of perspective..Nobody, I would think, has quite looked at a poem this way...So it was quite an eye opener and a very enjoyable read! Well done!

[Charles]

Well done. When I taught Anatomy and Physiology. i never offered students 'make up' exams. If they missed an exam, they owed me a poem - on the subject the exam covered. This would have been a great 'make up' exercise and would have earned the student an A (and, believe me, the students who did poems remembered the material (for the finals) better than those who took the exam in due course). Great effort. :-)

PS... from a poetic point of view, I think I'd drop the one line introductory stanza... it doesn't really add anything to the effect of the poem.