{"id":1605,"date":"2012-08-24T21:33:52","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T10:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2015-07-21T20:04:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T09:04:59","slug":"in-clover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/?p=1605","title":{"rendered":"in clover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve just won the 3rd<\/sup> Annual RiAus Sci-ku competition.<\/a> (\u201cInspired by the Japanese haiku, sci-ku is a 3 line poem which gives us a flash of insight like the scientific \u201cEureka!\u201d moment.)<\/p>\n

2012 is the Year of the Farmer. My theme was the symbiosis of nature and agriculture as exemplified in the amazing way that the humble clover takes an inert gas from the atmosphere and uses it to improve our soils and food:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Clover, the farmer\u2019s friend.<\/address>\n
White nodule bacteria microfactories,<\/address>\n
nature\u2019s fertiliser mined from thin air.<\/address>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was a concentrated haiku version of a poem (Balansa Clover<\/em>)<\/a> published on the Stylus Poetry Journal \u2019way back in 2005:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Balansa clover<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

i sowed \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 this balansa clover<\/em><\/p>\n

in one furrow at the top of the hill<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

knowing it was hardcoated<\/em><\/p>\n

to survive the gut of sheep<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to be broadcast in its own organic<\/em><\/p>\n

fertilizer pellet \u00a0 its \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 descendants spread through<\/em><\/p>\n

an acre paddock.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i pull \u00a0\u00a0 at a clump teasing fibrous roots<\/em><\/p>\n

from moist soil and marvel at white<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

nodules\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 microfactories of sym<\/em><\/p>\n

biotic bacteria mining<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

nitrogen from the air<\/em><\/p>\n

fertilizer for the \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 neighbours in this<\/em><\/p>\n

community of plants.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks to RiAus for supporting both connections between science and poetry and its generosity \u2013 my 3 line poem won me a Kindle Touch e-reader!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just won the 3rd Annual RiAus Sci-ku competition. (\u201cInspired by the Japanese haiku, sci-ku is a 3 line poem which gives us a flash of insight like the scientific \u201cEureka!\u201d moment.) 2012 is the Year of the Farmer. My … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2424,"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/2424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}