Homage à Eugène Marais

Homage à Eugène Marais

Marais proposed
the termite nest a whole
organic creature like a soul,
the queen its brain enthroned,
the blood, the workers, he supposed
for food a fungus grown -
body composed.

Written for the Verdant Poetry Contest for June, 2020. I became so caught up in the poetic form that I forgot entirely that I was supposed to be writing about Summer (I thought it was about Nature, for some unknown reason). I may still write a Summer poem for the contest but, in the meantime, this has been an interesting experience in what is, to be honest, a ridiculous form. It may also prove of interest to anyone fascinated by termites!

Line Count: 7
Form: Star Sevlin
4/6/8/6/8/6/4 syllables per line
Rhyme scheme abbcaca
Centered on the page
Note: Eugène Marais was a South African lawyer, naturalist, poet and writer who published a book entitled The Soul Of The White Ant, translated into English in 1937, in which he suggested that termite nests could be regarded as organisms similar to individual animals. Disregarded in his own time, the theory has since earned respectability in scientific circles.