For the new year, here’s a poem about a little turtle, huge determination, and a new life. Besides, I liked this little guy.
Snapping Turtle
New eyes smolder
with fierce desire.
Such a difficult entry through a
narrow door. Your sanctuary
became your prison. Behind,
winter stalks slowly in the night
frost. Its shadow lurks in the
angle of the light. Ahead,
an arduous journey to break
the ties that bind you to
this fading place.
You seek a realm your
hooded eye insists exists,
but has never seen.
If you survive, you arrive
in paradise, a world green
with sweeping grace. Beauty
will inhabit this house
forever. Bound by breath
to the land of your birth,
you will dwell
in the rooms between.
© Steve Peterson
For more Poetry Friday, please visit Matt’s place, Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme. Also, there you’ll find some wonderful poetry and prose regularly, so follow him or check back often!
Very moving and thoughtful, yet accessible enough for late middle-graders and up! Really liked this, Steve.
Thanks, Matt. I’ve had a lot of fun with Poetry Friday in the last, oh, couple of months!
I’m definitely an amateur poet, though. By day, a mild-mannered third grade teacher in a small town in the Midwest. By night? A guy in a cape sitting at home honing and practicing his word play in order to take on the big issues of his time. (Er…maybe turtles aren’t such a big issue…?) 🙂
Thanks again for hosting the party, and for stopping by to chat!
But don’t you think that being a writer by night makes you a better teacher of writers? Works for me! Nothing like bringing your own process and drafts into the workshop!! I’m glad you’ve joined the PF gang!
Yes, Mary Lee, writing does help me teach writing. I can’t imagine how to teach something so difficult without doing it oneself!
On a more general level, poetry also helps me be more present in the moment, to notice the details that make a life rich and meaningful. I suspect that good teaching is about noticing the many, many moments of the many, many kids that I interact with each day; to see the world as it is and as it could be. So, maybe in that way, poetry also helps me to be a better teacher?
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I love the promise that could be discerned in the last two lines. Beautiful.
Thank you very much, Myra, for reading and leaving a comment! Yes, this little guy got me thinking and wondering, which is always fun to do and one of the reasons I love poetry so much!
I don’t know where you live, but am fearful for that little one. He needs to get into a warm place, just like we do!
HA! Yes, if he was still out roaming around right now, he’d be really chilly! A new definition for “cold-blooded.”
Actually, I saw him in a prairie down by the river side in the late-ish fall. Winter wasn’t in town yet, but it wasn’t too many counties away. Amazing how they time it; if all goes well, things work out.
Thanks so much for stopping by and offering a comment!
Lovely!
Thank you, Ruth. All the best in the new year!
Thanks for the photo. That is the smallest little snapping turtle I’ve ever seen. Ours were always about a foot long. Enjoyed the ending for your poem.
Thanks for stopping by, Joy!
Yes, this is a very small snapper. I think it was less than a day old when that picture was taken, and already he was on his feet and moving around. If he’s lucky, he’ll last many, many decades and grow to be 2 feet across. If that happens, er…he’ll be much less cuddly and cute!
LOVE the photo, and
“New eyes smolder
with fierce desire.”
I hope this little guy gets to grow up to be a fierce predator!!
I hope he does, too.
When I picked him up to get a closer look, his beaked mouth opened and the look in his eyes was so fierce and defiant that I could easily imagine him as his older self. At that moment, I could see the the marvelous “turtle-ness” of this creature and some of the mystery within him.