I loved the A.P. Biology class I took in high school. Believe it or not, I remember much of what I learned all those years ago. So when I was planning this project, I didn’t have to think twice about the word I would use for x. Xylem was right there, just waiting to be celebrated in a poem. Fast forward to this week of testing, planning for next year, and caring for my family and you have…a very brief poem acknowledging the hard work xylem does.
X is for Hope
Why?
Because…
Water + xylem + sunlight =
GREEN
Vibrant or muted,
bursting from stems supported
by strong, thirsty straws
Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023
Nicholas.H.Hale, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Thank you to Laura Purdie Salas for her brilliant book, Snowman – Cold = Puddle, for the inspiration! Please be sure to visit Janice Scully at Salt City Verse for the Poetry Friday Roundup!
Reading to the Core 
Absolutely beautiful how your poem celebrates spring. Phloem and xylem, those thirsty straws, are words I will always remember as a gift from eight grade. How much we owe to teachers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thirsty straws. Not only hope, but awe at the marvel of the complexity that all life is. And juxtaposed in my heart at times is looking at the ways we manage to ignore, forget to marvel, and are to busy with minutiae to remember to hope and then chase those dreams. Your Xylem poem struck a nerve. I think that is a type of high compliment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes! Xylem=hope! I so love these hope-poems!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hooray for xylem…in a poem. I remember I used “xylem” as a word in a poem years and years ago and it really tripped up my teacher. LOL! You’ve used it beautifully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love your equation poem! And the metaphor of strong thirsty straws. Science and nature poems are your gift.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly right, the equation and the memory from our teachers. It’s quite the perfect system, isn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Catherine, I do enjoy an equation poem. Congratulations for introducing such a a wonderful word for x into your poetry project.
LikeLike
I think “x” would have stumped me, but I love what you did with it, Catherine!
LikeLike