Stemistry lab
Creative responses to science
The following poems, stories and soundbites have been created by members of a working group of writers drawn from the North East region of the UK.
Below are a few examples of the work produced. There is plenty of writing to explore in the Stemistry Lab collection — Browse by AUTHOR or Browse by TITLE
Stem cells
The tipped-over Petri dish is hereafter.
A comfortable scream
At its crimson nucleus
Will dreg all predicaments and mix-ups.
Commixture was this dawn’s poison.
Dead needle blows
Till decompoundings
Cradle the re-design.
Globulins hurly-burly
Through varicosed vessels.
Diacoustics, flux, electrical disquiet.
The tipped-over Petri dish is hereafter.
Designate it a cauldron,
Tensioned to glow magical futures.
A realm to annihilate on.
The propulsion to regeneration.
It slurs, it expects. Unnaturally.
By Christopher Barnes
In the beginning…
1.
White. The room is as numb as snow,
as quiet as winter. A silent clock hangs on the wall.
Startled by a ghostly, gloved hand, the cell is removed;
taken to the red area by the starched researcher.
2.
Ripe. The room is as red as life, blood-warm.
Nestled in this cradle, the cell begins
to question; if this is where life begins,
tell me, why is the white room crying?
By Catherine Graham
In one exercise, the writers each wrote a special type of poem called a mesotic, which works vertically as well as horizontally. See for yourself:
Arm twister
Ariadne hAdn’t wanted to getinvolved with it, Roger has persuaded
or, one might say, Made her agree
to donaTe what he called
spares. She kneW in her bones
in her sInews that she wanted
them painleSsly destroyed. If there
was such a Thing as pain for them, or
ever a time whEn there could be lack of pain
foR her
By Marilyn Longstaff
While some of the writers produced poems, some explored issues with prose. The following pieces of automatic writing were prompted by the words embryo, IVF and In-utero Click here to read more stories produced by the group.
IVF
The dish clatters on the bench. The shaking of the first-time hand. An inaudible pop as the syringe breaks the surface of the ovum. Whoosh. Sperm thrust in at unnatural rates. One begins its immediate involuntary burrowing. Coupling complete. Time ticks away as the two swell and merge. Nuclei melding in the cold, sterile surroundings. Taking security from each other. Nestling within each other’s bond in a vast emptiness of the stark glass dish. Incubation has started and soon the lonely beginnings divide – nature’s demand for company. And again, irrepressible multiplication. Like microscopic eggs. Ovate, gleaming, wet, shinning new life. Divide and conquer – but not just yet. The air of anticipation is palpable. There’s a silent buzzing. A still jostling. Everything is happening and yet nothing yet.
In-utero
There she was waiting, hanging around in her scarlet cavern. Minding her own business doing everything as ‘everything’ had told hers he should, unsure, anticipating, excited, a little nervous, worried she would be one of those discarded, un-chosen. There was something going on in her surroundings today that made it different from the past 48 hours. Her regulated abode was washing this way and that. And before she knew it she could hear them bursting into her padded cell of security, babbling, yattering, fighting, jostling, noisy – ferocious even. In the darkness she became aware of their movement, determined, frenetic. Then suddenly one was upon her; burrowing deep into her very existence; its head melding, merging with her; a wriggling appendage still writhing loose outside herself. This symbiosis theft her shocked and strangely changed. She was no longer herself and the two were no longer separate entities. As their beings separated into each other the disorientation eased. Slowly the new being meshed itself into the ruby cushioning which swallowed it up at first; swathing the soreness, comforting the anxiety, as slowly the new form began to become itself, Happy now in its existence, keen to no longer be one, pleased to share its uniqueness with the world, it divided and was no longer alone.
By Beverley Addy
Named original works were created during the Stemistry project and all enquires regarding use of any of the work should, in the first instance, be addressed to: peals@ncl.ac.uk. No work (part or whole) can be reproduced without express permission from the author(s).