The Men Who Saved The World

His name was Nikolai Vavilov
Perhaps you’ve never heard of
Before the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Seeds required protection from assault

Germany invaded Leningrad, 1941
Protecting seeds became job one
Refusing to eat seeds, men starved instead
So all of humanity could be fed

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Image: Seeds at the Vavilov Institute, by Mario Del Curto, from The Seeds of the Earth, the Vavilov Institute

More about Nikolai Vavilov and his seeds:

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Linked to dVerse Poets Pub — Quadrille 127: Planting Seeds where Merril is hosting tonight and asked us to pen a quadrille using the word seed.

Quadrille: A poetic form introduced at dVerse Poets Pub circa 2011. The rules for Quadrille: not including the title, a poem of exactly 44 words using the prompt word or its variant.

Quadrille Defined in a Quadrille

See more quadrille poetry.

20 thoughts on “The Men Who Saved The World”

  1. Clever clever. Surely it is a mark of good work when I have to do some research to feel like I can enjoy the whole picture? Good work it is, well done.

    1. This topic certainly needs more than 44 words to do it any justice. You should watch the Cosmos episode about this.

    1. Yes, I learned about it a few months ago in the Cosmos: Possible Worlds episode (mentioned above in the additional information section) devoted to Nikolai. When the prompt came in an mentioned the new seed bank in Norway, it sparked my remembrance of this,

      I feel a need to expand the poem (without a 44 word limit) and tell more of the story, which I think I will do in the coming days.

  2. writingwhatnots

    A short poem sometimes packs more of a punch than a longer one – your poem proves that. As Anotherkatewilson says: ‘Fascinating!’

  3. Beverly Crawford

    Marvelous bit of seed history. I love it when our poetry is educational as well. Thank you! I’ll be researching more on this subject.

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