Turtle1
Editorial Introduction. — This section is devoted to poetry involving turtles, representing either reprinted previously published or new unpublished material. We encourage our readers to submit poetry or songs for consideration, either their own material or work by other authors. Poems may be submitted to Anders G.J. Rhodin, Chelonian Research Foundation, E-mail: RhodinCRF@aol.com.
Our desire is to share with our readers the beauty and wonder of turtles as expressed through the art of the poem or song. In the sense that the relationship between man and turtles is multifaceted, so too is turtle poetry. The poems we publish here will reflect that complexity, from poems of pure admiration for the creatures themselves to others reflecting the utilization of turtles and their products. Some poems will reflect man's use of the turtle for sustenance, others will stress man's need to preserve and protect turtles. Some will deal with our emotional interactions with turtles, others will treat turtles light-heartedly or with seeming disrespect, but all will hopefully help us to better understand both the human and the chelonian condition, and remind us that the turtle holds a sacred place in all our hearts.
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
She can ill afford the chances she must take
In rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
A packing-case places, and almost any slope
Defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
She's often stuck up to the axle on her way
To something edible. With everything optimal,
She skirts the ditch which would convert
Her shell into a serving dish. She lives
Below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
Will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
The sport of truly chastened things.
Editorial Comment. — Kay Ryan (b. 1945) is a prominent American poet who was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2012. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2011, was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “genius grant” the same year, and was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2012. She published this poem much earlier in her life, in 1994, during a period of personally difficult times, before she achieved success and became well-known for her poetry. It is a popular poem that is often republished and frequently analyzed as a metaphor for human life struggles, focusing first on some of the hardships and difficulties that a turtle must endure to survive, in some ways mocking its efforts, but in the end showing respect for its perseverance and patience as worthy attributes that help lift its burden and provide it with resilience going forward. In some ways, for us in our community of turtle biologists and conservationists, it could also be seen as a metaphor for the difficulties we all face in trying to preserve and protect these increasingly threatened animals, the hardships we endure and the setbacks we try to avoid, while pursuing our conservation efforts with patience and perseverance, and an everlasting optimism that our efforts will gradually allow for some measure of success. One might even ask: Who would be a turtle conservationist who could help it? I think we all know the answer: We can't help it—it's who we are, just as the author seemed to be saying about herself at the time. We are who we are—we may be encumbered and struggle and encounter difficulties in our pursuits, but we remain patient and we persevere—much like the turtles and tortoises for which we care.
