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.

[Elizabeth]

This is superb. It takes a seemingly dry science lesson and makes a very human and assessable tour of a most basic process... thought. What are we, really... beyond the science of it all? This delicately poses that great question in the debate of nature vs. nurture so very cleverly.

[Dinesh Sairam]

Haha.. I hardly understand the technical terms. But this in nice. I mean, the whole meaning of it was brilliant. Maybe if I understood the full meaning, I'd thought it's better than I think. Kudos. Keep writing. :)

[faryn wolff]

This deserves more than my short praise, but this is clever and entertaining! Wonderful!

[Ashley.M.E]

this is excellent as Marie stated. It works as a nice little story, but a poem as well. You have a way with poetry, well done, again.

[Marie Harrison]

Cool poem. I love the references to parts in the brain. Excellent read!

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

You have obviously circumnavigated the neural loop in order to create this wonderfully engaging poem. It held my attention from beginning to end and was very informative.

Linda Marie Van Tassell

[Alicante lullaby]

very physiological...sodium pottasium pump and complex CNS...i think Ghyton wrote this poem.:)

[KatiePie]

I loved it ^-^
it had a sort of.. skippy flow to it, like words dancing along until they reach their end, but even when they stop dancing they linger. It was fun reading this like a story being told to a small child. Beautiful work :)
-Cathrine

[Poeticpiers]

a most amusing creation I dont know if its accurate but yoiu certainl held my interest start to finish