TURTLE POETRY
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 — This section is devoted to poetry involving turtles, representing either reprinted previously published or new unpublished material.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 humans 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 people’s use of the turtle for sustenance, others will stress our 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.
Learning to Love Turtles1
Sean M. Hartzell
When I was a young boy
My father found a baby snapping turtle
Down by the river
And we took him home and kept him
For a while
We named him “Jaws”
And fed him worms and crickets
And I learned to love turtles
But as the summer nights began to cool
It was time to let him go
My father said
So he could live his life in the river
And grow big and strong
So we let him go
And I cried and I cried
And years later
My father found
Another baby snapping turtle
And my niece kept him
For a while
She fed him worms
And named him “Charlie”
But then too, it was time
To let him go
As she prepared to enter school
So we went to the river
And let him go
And when she cried and cried
I knew she had learned
To love turtles too
Editorial Comments. — I received this poem from Sean Hartzell last year and thought it quite nice in terms of evoking the kinds of emotions that move many of us to love turtles while also recognizing that most turtles belong in the wild. I asked Sean for the background of the poem, and this is what he wrote:
“It was inspired by real events—when I was in elementary school in the mid-1990s, my father found a juvenile Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) at a park next to our home in Pennsylvania. My sister and I were off from school for the summer, and we took the turtle home for a few months to observe it live in a terrarium. We named it ‘Jaws’ and fed it crickets and other insects. However, when it came time to go back to school in September, my father taught us an important lesson—we went back to the park and let it go by the riverbank so it could live in the wild. I remember crying the next day in school. The experience was also formative for me as I went on to a career in biology and herpetology in a professional research capacity. Fast forward to Summer 2024—I’m grown up, and my sister and her husband have two beautiful children—my niece is about to go to kindergarten. My father is out walking near his home and finds a hatchling Snapping Turtle stuck between railroad tracks (probably where the nest was) and a busy highway. He takes it home to show my niece, and she named it ‘Charlie’ and made a temporary terrarium for it. The next day I visit, teach my niece a little bit about turtles, and then we go to a wetland near the railroad tracks and release him. On the way back, my niece is starting to tear up because she misses Charlie, but we emphasize how Charlie’s place is in the wetland and she understands while fighting back tears. So, that’s the whole story in a nutshell. The thrust from my perspective, which I hope to convey, is things coming full circle, and teaching generations to appreciate and conserve turtles, with the emphasis that turtles belong in the wild.”
We agree that turtles belong in the wild unless so critically endangered that they need conservation breeding to help restore depleted populations, but to keep a few turtles in captivity as ambassadors can also help inspire more people to love them, and that’s important too. People protect and save what they love—and we all love turtles—whether in the wild or not.
