Tuesday Poem - The Conjugation of the Paramecium by Muriel Rukeyser

The Conjugation of the Paramecium*

This has nothing
to do with
propagating


The species
is continued
as so many are
(among the smaller creatures)
by fission


(and this species
is very small
next in order to
the amoeba, the beginning one)


The paramecium
achieves, then,
immortality
by dividing


But when
the paramecium
desires renewal
strength another joy
this is what
the paramecium does:


The paramecium
lies down beside
another paramecium


Slowly inexplicably
the exchange
takes place
in which
some bits
of the nucleus of each
are exchanged


for some bits
of the nucleus
of the other


This is called
the conjugation of the paramecium.

Muriel Rukeyser

*paramecium |ˌparəˈmē sh (ē)əm; -sēəm|noun Zoology - a single-celled freshwater animal that has a characteristic slipper-like shape and is covered with cilia. • Genus Paramecium, phylum Ciliophora, kingdom Protista.ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: modern Latin, from Greek paramēkēs ‘oval,’ from para- ‘against’ +mēkos ‘length.’

Helle Jorgensen

Whilst on the subject of sea creatures, please follow the links below. . . Helle Jorgensen is a master in the art of crocheting what most of us would consider the impossibly complex. . . 

http://hellejorgensen.typepad.com/gooseflesh/2008/07/entropy.html

http://hellejorgensen.typepad.com/photos/coral_garden/index.html

http://hellejorgensen.typepad.com/photos/artcraft/index.html (recovered plastic bags become yarn out of which Helle crochets elaborate sea creatures. . . see Echino below)

For more Tuesday Poems, please clink (I mean, click) on the quill. Janis Freegard is this week's editor on the TP hub with Vivienne Plumb's prose poem 128 Abel Street.