The poem First Cell by Ruth Padel, is a passionate account of „the world’s first magic“, the formation of a cell. It is part of her book We are all from somewhere else, Migration and Survival in Poetry and Prose which I’ve read and listened to countless times to take in her wondrous hymn to life. (Ruth Padel herself narrates the audio version of her book.) We are all from somewhere else explores why living beings migrate, whether it be immigrant plants, millions of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles crossing the Mara River, the ancient Hebrews’ flight into Egypt or today’s migrant workers and refugees. It is „the pull of the world“, the call for survival which began with the first cell’s making and breaking bonds to multiply and replicate itself. „This was the original migration“, Ruth Padel writes, „ – the spread of blue-green algae over the globe.“ Photosynthesis of air to oxygen – the stuff our breath is made of.
First Cell Born in a deep-sea vent, synthesised by lightning in a reducing atmosphere or carried here by meteorite, we’re all from somewhere else. Algae, first self-replicating molecule on Earth, Pulls carbon from organic substrate, performs the world’s first magic, photosynthesis of air to oxygen, and creates copies of herself, uncountable as starlings flocking or the pure gold bricks Sheba sent to Solomon by mule. Cell in the air, on the rocks. Song hoping to be heard in a heart cut open. Little Blue-green, dreaming of pattern and form. Tiny horseman of apocalypse. Source: Ruth Padel, We are all from somewhere else, Migration and Survival in Poetry and Prose, Vintage 2020