Seeing Science poem

“I Am” and “Scientific” Poems for the “Seeing FL...” Project

The “I Am” poem for the “Seeing FL...” project should capture the characteristics of what your research subject is from your research subject’s perspective or point of view. Be creative with verb choices and try to describe behaviors, environments, sights, sounds, and other sensations. Imagine you are your research subject and develop a view of the world from that perspective. Realize that the “I Am” frame is just a starting point and be creative with both the structure and the ideas captured in each line. Change the frame to fit your ideas. Example:

I AM--MODEL
FIRST STANZA
I am (two special characteristics you have)
I wonder (something you are actually curious about)
I hear (an imaginary sound)
I see (an imaginary sight)
I want (an actual desire)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

SECOND STANZA
I pretend (something you actually pretend to do)
I feel (a feeling about something imaginary)
I touch (an imaginary touch)
I worry (something that really bothers you)
I cry (something that makes you very sad)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

THIRD STANZA
I understand (something you know is true)
I say (something you believe in)
I dream (something you actually dream about)
I try (something you really make an effort about)
I hope (something you actually hope for)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I AM a zebra longwing butterfly.

I am a floating shadow streaked with lightning.
I glide through dappled sunlight
in search of the sweet nectar of passion flowers.
I waft on the wind in undulating rhythm
as I seek the scent of ecstasy.
I am one of nature’s silent songs.

I sail black among oaks, banyons, and cabbage palms,
playing tag with sun beams,
buffeted by southern breezes,
drawn to the tendrils of trailing vines.
I return each night to the comfort of the colony
and sleep so soundly I’m cloaked in dreams.

I am one of nature’s fantasies realized.
I devour pollen to extend my life,
while the poisonous sap of the passion flower
eaten in my youth fends off predators.
Although ants eat my eggs, I produce enough
to fill the Florida air with flights of my kin.
I am a pollinator, a replenisher of vital plants,
more than just symbolic beauty:
I am wild Florida’s fragile emblem of whispering flight.

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The “scientific” poem should be built with the scientific information you have gathered on your research subject. Create images and descriptions which identify your research subject’s life cycle, behaviors, interactions with the environment, dangers, habits, movements, and beauty. Use common names, scientific names, parts of the scientific taxonomy, comparisons and contrasts to other parts of the natural world. Use effective poetic techniques which might include metaphors, similes, alliteration, internal rhyme, and personification. You might include references to myths, tales, or legends. Again, use the poem frame as a starting point but be creative with how you capture your subject and use the structure and language ideas.

Animal Poetry

Gather information about an animal. Each line provides specific information about your animal. Animals include birds and insects. Feel free to add more information, change the order and structure of the lines, and be creative with language or poetic technique.

Now create your own poem.

Line 1: Common name
Line 2: Four descriptive traits
Line 3: Family of
Line 4: Likes to
Line 5: Who eats
Line 6: Who lives in
Line 7: Who is seen as
Line 8: Whose enemies are
Line 9: Lifespan
Line10: Scientific name

Below are examples:
 

Coyote
Black-tipped bushy tails, long legs, gray to reddish in color, with white under bellies
Family of Canidae
Likes to swim, run, hunt in packs, and vocalize with others
Eats mostly meat, but some plants and insects 
Lives in deserts, open woodlands, and desert brushland
Seen as tricksters, and dangerous to livestock
Enemies are bears and mountain lions
Lives 6 to 7 years

Canis latrans

 
------------------------------------

Coyote
This Canis is characterized by a relatively high body,
long legs, and a cylindrical tail.
Hunts walking slowly through areas alive with rodents, investigating holes and listening carefully, and then stealthily creeping toward the prey and capturing it with a final dash
opportunistic predators and scavengers
of the Order Carnivora and Family Canidae
a distinct species by the late Pliocene, 2.3 million years ago
lives in deserts, open woodlands, brushland, and adapts to urban spaces
the most extensive natural range of any terrestrial mammal
ability to thrive in close proximity to human activity
Seen by the Shoshone as a devious Trickster
Endangered by bears, mountain lions, and man
Lifespan 6 to 20 years maximum
Canis latrans

 

------------------------------------

Gopher Tortoise
a species older than a dinosaur with dusty, armored shell,
long claws on almost fin-shaped legs,
and a peek-a-boo perspective from inside a thick carapace,
from the Family of Testudinidae, the tortoises,
who crawls slowly over the flat Florida terrain,
and eats grass, flowers, and fallen fruit,
who lives in burrows forty feet long and ten feet deep,
and in that burrow gives home to indigo snakes, mice, foxes, skunks, and burrowing owls,
who is seen as “a species of special concern,”
whose enemies are raccoons, foxes, skunks, and
armadillos as an egg,
but car-driving, condo building humans as an adult,
yet can live as long as 60 years,
Gopherus Polyphemus.

------------------------------------
Cribbean Collisions

(In response to Don Ray’s painting of a flying fish being pursued by both a Magnificent Frigate and a dolphin fish.)

Fins folded, the flying fish lifts,
bursts from beneath the sea’s surface
to glide at forty five miles an hour
across the crests and rifts.

Coryphaena hippurus, chartreuse purple flashes,
agitated dark dorsal flags flying,
dart underneath in patterned pursuit
anticipating winged dashes.

Overhead, a frigate’s black wings reflect cobalt blue;
narrowed in diving descent,
his deep forked tail alters flight
and allows hooked bill to pursue.

Adapted after a million years of predation
silver herring aircraft take off
with the lower lobe of the caudal fin whirring
in instinctive defensive navigation.

Feathered pirate, Fregata Magnificens,
descends, snaps his hinged, hooked trap,
plucks the airborne sard,
claims the prize, and ascends.

Undeterred, dorado drive pinnate prey
through waves into gusts to glide
over furrows and undulating ridges
to bank off swells in an aerial ballet.

A dance of the eons is enacted on the oceanic tide
by a triad of species entwined;
evolved adaptations of flight and fight
on a sun dappled sea collide.

To look at Don Ray’s art go:

http://www.donraystudio.com/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=24&cat=Limited+Editions