I feel compelled to continue the Streisand effect that the Life Legal Defense Foundation’s opposition to one Tyson Anderson’s poem has caused.

Apparently, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine sponsored a contest soliciting poems about stem cell research. They did this last year (you can find the winners here) and again this year, in honor of Stem Cell Awareness Day on October 6. The winner this year will get a [pretty awesome, akshly] framed electron microscope stem cell image (of their choice). Entries were duly submitted, judged, and announced. The winning poems were, of course, posted on CIRM’s site.

Two days later, all of this year’s poems were taken down. Stem C., by Tyson Anderson, was objected to by LLDF as “blasphemous”, “propaganda”, and “pilfering of the holiest of voluntary, sacrificial acts in the history of humanity” (by which they mean mythology, unless they’ve unearthed evidence I’ve not heard of). They additionally argued that it contained an “inadvertent acknowledgment of the personhood of […] embryos”. I think they’re giving far too little credit to the poet: words in poems are rarely “inadvertent” and very often ascribe personhood to animals, concepts, and inanimate objects. It’s called personification and the LLDF has clearly never heard of it.

Stem C. came in first place, but the second place poem, Birth, Rebirth by Andy Levy (which is beautiful, by the way) did not escape LLDF’s righteous furor. They, and their band of parroting ideologues, in two days convinced CIRM to take down the poems. At the moment, they can still be read here (and at other sites dedicated to defeating this censorship).

Having no permission to do so, but hoping that the authors understand my intent to battle religious extremism against them, the four published-then-unpublished poems are below the fold.

The winner:

Stem C.
, by Tyson Anderson

This is my body

which is given for you.
But I am not great.

I have neither wealth,

nor fame, nor grace.

I cannot comfort with words,

nor inspire to march.

I am small and simple,
so leave me this.
Let me heal you.
This is my body
which is given for you.

Take this

in remembrance of me.

The runner-up:

Birth, Rebirth
, by Andy Levy

One cell, followed by many more

The mosaic forms a new life

A young child will freely soar
Yet untouched by sadness or strife.
The cells divide, and we behold

Newborn, toddler and then a teen
Innocence turns to loud and bold

A movie, never before seen.
With all the world in front of her

She runs, she flies, and shows her flair

But all these things become a blur

When she learns life is so unfair.
Trouble now looms down deep inside

When all those cells begin to fail

There is no place to run and hide

When the body becomes a jail.
She deserves a much better fate

Science and chemistry are key

Make healthy cells regenerate

And give her back her destiny.
Despair gives way to passion

And she demonstrates strength and grace

We are driven to take action

At a steady frenetic pace.
Together we can change the course

With lots of hard work to be sure

New stem cells will provide the source

Of discoveries yielding a cure.

Two honorable mentions:

Replanting Neurons
, by Celia Berrell

The beauty of movement.

Some tendrils of hope

are glimpsed in a garden
through one microscope.

The flowers of life
and the fruit of our soul

require every stem to be

sturdy and whole.
We graft weed and nurture

our gardens with pride.

What grows and what goes
is for us to decide.

Where pathways are broken
a wheelchair can’t reach.

But stem cell researchers
are mending that breach.

and

the Stem Cell and the Scientist, by Kandy L. Bain

Small but mighty

Here I am undifferentiated

With no destination just yet……….
Until

I am poked ever so carefully with a small

Metal tube containing some

Information full of direction

Then

Here I am filled with new direction
All

Because the Scientist and I

Worked together………

Together we can give rise to

Anything.

Personally, I think science-themed art is très awesome and that we should encourage it, not censor it. But, of course, I’m not a religious nut (any more), so that might explain why I don’t see the clear destruction of humanity as we know it that poetry represents.

via the Freethinker

I will, of course, remove the poems should the authors (or CIRM) desire narrower dissemination. Please simply email me.