“On Earth Day, note worthy intention /
Of science’s close-paid attention: /
See patterns emerging /
From threads’ new-converging, /
Revealing enriching dimensions.”
The 22 April 2025 Bluesky limerick was posted for Earth Day and commemorated a quote from renowned scientist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer, from her wonderful 2003 book Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. (Kimmerer is best known for her 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Teaching, Scientific Knowledge, and the Wisdom of Plants, which is also superb.)
Below is the specific quote that inspired this poem and post:
“Slowing down and coming close, we see patterns emerge and expand out of the tangled tapestry threads. The threads are simultaneously distinct from the whole, and part of the whole… Knowing the fractal geometry of an individual snowflake makes the winter landscape even more of a marvel. Knowing the mosses enriches our knowing of the world.”
From Gathering Moss, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“On Earth Day, note worthy intention /
Of science’s close-paid attention…”
One of my favorite chapters in Gathering Moss is entitled “Learning to See.” The essay directly examines some of the points I found most bewilderingly unaddressed in my own training as a scientist, in terms of the different way that language was functioning in the science coursework I took, compared to my previous experience and non-science classes.
Kimmerer notes how scientific vocabulary can sharpen the precision with which a scientist can observe and communicate: “With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly. Finding the words is another step in learning to see.” She also discusses how her perspective as an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation informs her knowledge of the natural world: “In indigenous ways of knowing, all beings are recognized as non-human persons, and all have their own names… Words and names are the ways we humans build relationship, not only with each other, but also with plants.”
“See patterns emerging /
From threads’ new-converging, /
Revealing enriching dimensions.”
In the specific focus of this poem, the shifting between the particulate, macroscopic, and symbolic lenses common within chemistry courses seemed to resonate well with Kimmerer’s eloquent discussion of both how larger patterns arise from the “new-converging” combination of discrete threads and how precise vocabulary can help us better understand these juxtapositions.
More broadly, close observation is also a common topic in my general education science courses. Most students enrolled in these classes will not need chemistry content for their future career paths, but observation and attention can be universally beneficial.
Chemphasis 