Magnificence
For Spike Walker, Photomicrographer
What jewelled gifts are these,
spliced and stacked on platters
of smeared glass?
A universe of micro.
You breathed life to mitre continents,
raised spikebergs of vitamin C.
Sulphur produced Marvel-ready
planets of purples and acid greens.
You stitched Persian carpets
and unfurled Flamenco hems.
Did you see the drystane dykes
on onion-skin cells,
the on-trend designs
in leaf scales with enough panache
to shame Liberty London?
You charted your own Discworld,
scratched films of ascorbic acid
to sign your science as art.
Moira McPartlin has five published novels. She was a 2021 writing fellow at Hawthornden Castle and 2022 Federation of Writers (Scotland) Scriever. Her latest book, A Thing So Delicate: The Hidden Voices of Scotland’s Mass Concrete Viaducts, a hybrid in collaboration with photographer Colin Baird, was published in August 2026.
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Spike Walker‘s first photomicrographs were produced in the 1940s, and over the next 75 years he gained international acclaim in various photomicrographic competitions and countless publications. He was a Fellow of the RPS and awarded the Combined Royal Colleges Medal in 2010. Spike died in 2025, aged 92.
‘Magnificence’ was originally published by IS&T on 9 October, 2024.