Poetry about Anatomy and Physiology

I wrote the following series of poems over summer vacation to help my kids get a handle on the fundamentals of human anatomy and physiology. It turned out to be a wonderfully enjoyable writing process, and the whole family got a kick out of the finished product. It’s a little like Dr. Seuss meets Gray’s Anatomy.

I hope these lyrical lines bring a smile to your face and deeper understanding of your entire body.

For an even more visceral experience, you can listen to the complete series, read by the author, in this 10 minute video on YouTube. A colorful, printable PDF version with illustrations and embellishments is also available in the King of Limericks Bookshop.

LIFE’S LITTLE UNITS

This is the cell, from each living thing
Wrapped in a membrane, enclosed in a ring
Organs and tissues, they’re made up of cells
And inside of the cells are some small organelles

This is the nucleus, right in the middle
Coding the genes like a protein-based riddle
In the nuclear envelope, sealed like a letter
DNA chains all spiral together

The mitochondrion generates juice
Producing the power we put to good use
For ATP bringing the charge that we need
Fuel for the body to grow and succeed

Now let’s see if you know your curriculum
Time for the endoplasmic reticulum
A series of tubes, the ER for short
Carries out functions like protein transport

Ribosomes everywhere, run like machines
And out of aminos, they build the proteins
The Golgi body takes part in this meeting
To take up the process of protein secreting

The vacuoles now with an enzyme solution
Flush out the waste with a cleansing diffusion
It’s larger than life but downright molecular
And I think you’ll agree, that it’s sort of spectacular

THE DIGESTIVE TRACT

This is the system of human digestion
Together I think we can answer the question
What happens to food when we put it inside us?
Open up wide and the passage will guide us

The path of digestion begins in the mouth
On a journey that leads irreversibly south
The teeth do their job, chewing food into pieces
Now enter the enzymes saliva releases

Epiglottis protects you by closing the gap
At the back of the mouth with a soft, tender flap
If you choke on it now you know something went wrong
Then — gulp — the esophagus leads us along

From here to the stomach, just come right this way
Where acids and juices all come into play
It’s here the digestion of proteins takes place
With help from the peptides and gastric lipase

Exit the duodenum and pass by the spleen
To the liver, the organ whose task is to clean
Removing the toxins to make your blood pure
A pivotal process for health, to be sure

We’ve reached the intestine, the one they call small
But at nearly nine meters, it’s not small at all
A segmented tube running this way and that
Absorbing nutrition and processing fat

The larger intestine, it’s known as the colon
Mind what you eat so it doesn’t get swollen
Food high in fiber to work it all through
And arrive at the end with a smooth number two

BONES OF CONTENTION

The skeletal system comprises our frame
With hundreds of bones and they each have a name
Two hundred six per adult, quite a lot
But two hundred seventy bones in a tot

Consisting of calcium, iron and marrow
The bones help you stand up erect like an arrow
They hold the whole body together, perhaps
Without them you’d simply fold up and collapse

The rock-solid skull can secure the soft brain
But watch out, low ceilings can cause it some pain
You’ll notice the head and the body connect
By way of the backbone, to curve and protect

The number one nerve, it runs right down the spine
So see that the vertebrae nicely align
And giving your cervix a bit of a rest
Draw back the shoulder blades, open the chest

Connecting the collar, the clavicle bends
Meeting the scapulae there at the ends
Just like I said, they’re exceedingly numerous
I won’t pull your leg, but we’re now at the humerus

From elbow to forearm and never at random
The ulna and radius working in tandem
Then follow a series of carpals and joints
To finally arrive at a finger that points

Now the typical torso, I feel it’s worth noting
Has twelve pairs of ribs, with the last two pairs floating
Joined at the sternum and spreading apart
They shelter the organs, the lungs and the heart

At the seat of the sacrum the tailbone tips
To the pelvis whose purpose is shaking your hips
And now to the longest and strongest of all
The femur performs and the person stands tall

We’re nearing the end so now be a good fella
Lean over forward and touch your patella
Where tendons and leg bones conjoin at the knee
All bending and stretching like limbs of a tree

Alongside the fibula, this here’s your shin
The tibia presses up flat on your skin
Turn at the talus and come to your feet
The ground of your being where man and earth meet

Use your phalanges and take a bold stand
The parts of the foot look a lot like the hand
Each with five digits and one of them stubby
The big toes and thumbs are a little more chubby

So these are the bones that are bound up within you
Moving with help from the muscles and sinew
So exercise often — I urge you to try it
Take care of your body and eat a good diet

FROM HEART TO HEART

Home is the heart, the centermost core
Alive in your chest with a critical chore
Pumping away like the beat of a drum
And moving the blood from your foot to your thumb

Circulation begins where the arteries start
By pushing the blood cells away from the heart
Down the aorta and into the flow
Delivering oxygen needed below

A system of arteries branching throughout
To nourish the organs around and about
Till the blood finally reaches the furthest domains
Where capillaries merge and converge into veins

Returning by way of the great vena cava
Coming in thick like a rush of hot lava
Back to the center, but oxygen poor
Time for a breath of fresh air to restore

Approaching the lungs at a regular pace
Here an exchanging of gasses takes place
From the windpipe comes oxygen deeply inhaled
While carbon dioxide is slowly exhaled

One vessel opened another constricted
Constantly moving those three quarts of liquid
The cycle continues, the blood runs its course
Endlessly pulsing with bodily force

ALWAYS ON MY MIND

This is the brain, the seat of control
Performing the primary leadership role
A bundle of nerves and elaborate wiring
Commanding the body with synapses firing

The medulla can basically help you digest
Without it you’d suffer from cardiac arrest
Above the medulla, the pons has its place
It monitors breathing and parts of the face

Hello hypothalamus, practically thinking
To oversee sleeping and eating and drinking
The thalamus works with a similar function
Involved in the actions of love and consumption

Cerebellum comes next, for your mobilization
To move with precision and smooth coordination
In the midbrain the tectum looks up to perceive
The visual signals the eyeballs receive

In mammals and reptiles the cortex is key
Gray matter that’s linked to the olfactory
The grand hippocampus can help us remember
It separates mammals from lowlier members

The amygdalae, deep in the lobes they reside
They process emotions and help you decide
And so humans can act with deliberate luster
The ganglia join in a cranial cluster

And to finally enable the clever logician
The prime neocortex brings higher cognition
So these are the pieces that make up your mind
All wrapped up together and neatly entwined

Further Reading

In the beginning was the worm

The night before Christmas, revisited

Limericks about Bamboo: Sustaining Poetry