The Sad End of a Turtle
That is it!
I have gone belly up.
And I cannot upright myself.
I am stuck.
There is no way to get up.
My shell to the ground, my legs in the air
Oh no.
I shall never recover.
I kick to raise awareness, I kick for help.
Alas,
None come to help me
There is nothing I can do
For, I have gone belly up.
This week I asked the class to choose one of the two image based poems from the recent assignment in the book: the controlling image or magical image poetry exercises. This new poem of yours does focus on a single image throughout, similar to both poetry prompts, and I am guessing that this is meant as a controlling metaphor poem. From this perspective, the turtle on its back is a metaphor for what I assume is some kind of state of helplessness on the part of the speaker. I think we can all relate to seeing a turtle in this state and thinking about times when we felt similarly flipped over and hopeless. This kind of pity for animals is at the hear of this poem, and I think this poem is a nice step in the right direction. Here, you begin to use the tools of poetry to do the kind of things that only poetry can do.
ReplyDeleteI do wish I could get a better sense of the specific state that the poem is a metaphor for. Usually metaphors are more directly suggestive of the state they are expressing. This one is a bit vague.
I do like how the slow, patient pace of the poem resembles the pace of a turtle.
I meant to say "at the heart of this poem," not "at the hear of this poem"
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