.
Long snow-lined hedgerows
stand proud in the warming sun
seeing off winter.
.
by Scooj
Tag: Poetry
Northern white rhinoceros
.
Farewell dear Sudan
your tough skin was not enough;
the end of the line.
.
by Scooj
- On the news that the last male northern white rhinoceros was put down yesterday he is survived by his daughter and granddaughter. His passing is a loss that is emblematic and the world will feel a little bit less complete. A sad day indeed.
Duck billed platypus
Extraordinary
eclectic cluster of the
Animal Kingdom.
by Scooj
Coelacanth
Most ancient order
of lobe-finned fish enwrapped
with thick scale armour.
by Scooj
Winter lingers
Reset the fireplace
mothballed until next winter
snow and ice return.
by Scooj
Spider crab
Spiny long legs and
decorated carapace;
harmless omnivore.
by Scooj
- Atlast, after years of looking, I have found another transposable animal name. The first was goose barnacle/barnacle goose, now I can add to it spider crab/crab spider. Phew.
Hare
Slender herbivore
tall ears and like a rabbit
but not a rabbit.
by Scooj
Antlion
Great gladiator
conical dust arena
jaws at the ready.
by Scooj
Goose Barnacle
Attached to flotsam
a curious crustacean
and filter feeder.
by Scooj
- Occasionally one can be lucky enough to see these fascinating creatures washed up on driftwood. They really are most unusual.
- I like the name, because if you switch the words you get barnacle goose, which is great wordplay. I test myself regularly to see if there are any other such animal names that can be transposed in this way. I haven’t found one yet. (Sadly there is no such thing as a monkey spider…for example.)
- It was named because it was thought (before such things were understood) that barnacle geese were created from them as their nests and chicks were never seen in Northern Europe. The goose barnacle has a long ‘neck’ and the main part of the body resembles a head and beak.
Conventional wisdom
In the seventies
the country was much greener;
rose-tinted glasses.
by Scooj
- A convenient narrative adopted by pro-Brexit campaigners urging a return to the ‘good old days’ before we were told what to do by Europe. The facts rather contradict this romantic notion, and certainly my recollection of growing up in London in the 1970s is not a pleasant one – choking car fumes, filth and litter everywhere and heavily polluted rivers, our countryside didn’t fare much better. What did European regulations ever do for us…? (Habitats Directive, Water Framework Directive, the Birds Directive, Bathing Waters Directive, Air Quality Framework Directive and others).
Natural adventures 