My Mushroom Hero
Irvine, CA
2023, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Climate Hero: Paul Stamets, Fungi Perfecti
There is a man who’s secretly saving the Earth
By knowing how much mushrooms are worth
Instead of seeking salvation in the stars
He peers beneath soil to find treasure that is ours
For mushrooms are greater heroes than they seem
They can accomplish things beyond our dreams
We just found a mushroom that munches plastic
And who says that isn’t crazy fantastic?
Did you know we wouldn’t exist without shrooms?
They turn rocks into soil so we don’t run on fumes
Shrooms are the reason we have soil to grow food
Without shrooms you’d be in a horribly bad mood
Shrooms can even clean up oil spills and toxin-ridden corpses in the ground
There isn’t a better fungi to be found
I know all this because of a mycologist named Paul
Now let’s go out and have a mushroom ball!
Reflection
Reflection
After I watched Fantastic Fungi, I was inspired by the scientists and mycologists who devoted 15 years of their lives to creating a film that helped regular people like me understand the magic of mushrooms. To celebrate their effort, I decided to create and perform a playful rhyming poem, even though I had to tackle my weaknesses to perform it as I have never taken an acting or singing class. In crafting and performing this poem to celebrate the people I admire, I not only learned fascinating and useful wisdom about how mushrooms can save humanity from itself, but also, that I can turn my weaknesses into my strengths. Before I participated in this Contest, the only arts I was interested in were sketching and music. It was not until I tackled my performing arts weaknesses and created a spoken word video of which I was proud that I realized I could tackle other art mediums as well. Thank you for holding this Contest that allowed me to challenge myself.