Our Poems…

A selection of poems, including Cinquain poems by The Frozen Ark researchers created during our workshop with Rowena Sommerville.

Would you like to learn more about how to write a Cinquain? Our guide can be downloaded here.

Poems by Rowena Sommerville

Arkansas Fatmucket

The Arkansas fatmucket – what can it be?
Does it hide underground? Does it nest up a tree?
Does it roar like a lion, or coo like a dove?
Does it live very long? Is it lucky in love?
Does it raise many babies, or coddle one egg?
Does it crawl on its belly, or hop on one leg?
Is it shining and lovely, or dismal and grim?
Does it flap? Does it fly? Does it silkily swim?
Can it cure all diseases, or colonise space?
Will it happily cuddle, or spit in your face?
Is it big as an elephant? Small as a dot?
Are there two? Are there twenty? A little? A lot?
Well, I’ve heard that it’s stumbling,
and if it should fall,
will it matter a great deal, or scarcely at all?
There are so many questions,
not least of them why
is the Arkansas fatmucket waving bye-bye?
And there’s little time left for researching
because – what the fatmucket is
will soon be
what it
was.

by Rowena Sommerville

Bluefin Tuna

The tasty, thus targeted, tuna,
to eat it we couldn’t be keener -
which makes its good flavour a downer,
for the tuna I mean, not the diner;
the fishermen catch it with sonar,
and sell tiny bits for a tenner,
which means it’s a jolly good earner;
they sell what remains to the canner
then we eat it for lunch and for dinner,
which makes its demise a no-brainer,
and shortly it will be a goner,
and surely not later but sooner;
if only it could do a runner,
the tasty, and sorrowed for, tuna.

by Rowena Sommerville

Mountain Chicken Frog

In Dominica and Montserrat
there lives a curious creature that
makes foaming nests, barks like a dog -
it’s called the Mountain Chicken Frog.
Unluckily, this hapless beast
provided an ‘informal’ feast
and (though it’s not what we might wish)
became the islands’ national dish,
and there were other dangers too:
volcanoes added to the stew -
so chicken frogs were busy trying
to avoid both types of frying.
But then times changed, I’m glad to say,
and now the frog is back to stay,
as people positively strive
to keep the MCF alive.
In Dominica and Montserrat
there lives a curious creature that
hops up a hill, beds in a bog –
it’s called the Mountain Chicken Frog!

by Rowena Sommerville

Large Blue Butterfly

Scraps of blue sky
Drops of grey cloud
Dots of black earth
Petalled together into
Heavenly confetti

by Rowena Sommerville

Poems by Tees Valley contributors

Vaquita

Lonely
Little sea cow
Deadly by-catch victim
Mexican bonita crying
Salt tears
Splashing
Smallest porpoise
Very rare spectacle
Mexican tortuva eater
Netted!

by Nick Armitage

Snow Leopard

Ounce queen
Graceful alone
Watching silently still
Black rosette feline beauty gone
our bad

by Clair Hardy

Arctic Fox

Snow clown
Sumptuous pelt
Dwindling prey melting snow
Coat made of fur human riches
Farewell

by Clair Hardy

Starling

Speckled
Black metallic
Gathered murmuration
Their balletic aerial dance
Just watch

by Vanessa Ann Langford

Song thrush

Listen
Repeated phrase
Such melodic sweet tune
Chest of inverted hearts guards eggs
Bright blue

by Vanessa Ann Langford

Wood white butterfly

Dainty
Delicate flight
Black tipped wings snowy bright
Like tiny lights amongst the trees
Flit by

by Vanessa Ann Langford

Tiger

fire stripes
padding your way
managing your forest
strong, brave, lethal, feared by your prey
honour

by Susie Tindale

Elephant

wise one
lumbering sway
mother our dear forest
gentle giant in muddy play
honour

by Susie Tindale

Orangutan

watchman
familiar face
picking mango, swing free
peace man, red man ,  home - your forest
honour

tree man
we have your home
go...we’re burning your trees
...making big money red man ... go!
where to ?

watchman
what you watching ?
my home’s disappearing
once lush ..now burnt, nothing is left
I’m lost

by Susie Tindale

Poems by Whitby Naturalists

Grey Partridge (Perdix Perdix)

Gamebird
In a pear tree
Known by Rhyme, not by sight
Two million bagged per year
Game on?

Gamebird
Perdix Perdix
Mythical Greek flyer
Insects, Plants, Habitat now gone
Game over?

Gamebird
Lifeline given
Tweed shooters learn how to conserve
Reasoning; Harvestable Surplus
Game’s up?

by Graham Oliver

Australian Sea Lion

Fur, oil
The hunters’ prize
Endemic pinniped.
Numbers falling, can they survive?
Fate sealed?

by Jane Pottas

Snow Leopard

Ghostly
Seen but not seen
Silent moving shadow
Spiritual mountain being
Spotted

by Richard Pottas

Scottish Wildcat

Moonlit
Pine forest ghost
No tame tabby this one
But fierce, nocturnal nemesis
Phantom

by Mike Bagshaw

St Lucia Whip-tailed Lizard

Relict
Blue-tailed reptile
The sea its guardian
Desert island sanctuary
Fragile

by Mike Bagshaw

Kakapo

Flightless
The parrot walks
Its past predator-less
New cats, rats and ferrets can run
Bad news

by Mike Bagshaw

Curlew

Bubbling
Numenius
Bog trotter, seaside bird
Winter commuter, stay at home
Wader

Lugworm
Extracted out
Swallowed, gulped, repeat
Tide coming, sand going, quickly
Feed, now

Mournful
Song from on high.
Gliding, stalling, dropping
Skulking, rat-like, approaches nest
Sits down

Mottled
Cryptic wader
Seasonal moorland bird
Watchful sentinel, alarming
Whistle

by Tim Reed

Poems by Our Big Picture Creative Writers’ Group

Orangutan

Loner
Tree nest builder
Eat figs all through the day
Why can’t you just leave him alone?
To live

Palm Oil
It’s a killer
Person of the forest
Is disappearing from this earth
Right now

by Peter Cullum

Elephant

Ivory
Wise elephants
Hunted slaughtered
Acts inhuman, trade illegal
Trinkets

by Maria Garner

Turtles

Turtles
Ancient beings
Boldly crossing oceans
Peaceful, harmless, gentle giants
Respect

by Maria Garner

Hippopotamus

Thick skin
Barrel body
Short legs, flat feet, submerged
Unpredictable, dangerous
At risk

Inspect
Oily red sweat
Protecting eyes, nose, ears
Closed when submerged underwater
Sunblock

by Caroline Spence

Otis the hippo

Rescued
Barrel body
Hippo paddle, short legs
In his tank, giving eye contact
Captured

by Caroline Spence

European Eel

There is
a deep sadness,
that drifts out of the depths
two years to turn to seething glass
jostling

Windows
that look out of
a fast morphing curtain
drawn half closed by the hand of man’s
torpor

Mirror
silvered by silk
litheness pouring the pools
precious life fills hell’s deathly bouche
ensnared

Duppy
resurrection
incompetent, let go
Disembodied, cut off, quite warped
Stymied

by Keith Suddrey

Anguilla Anguilla

River
its raiment spine
ghosts through the gloomy town,
somehow I'm trapped by this outfall
for keeps

Sounding
the slow bottom
imprisoned without tide
no larvae, no glass, nor silver
just me

Wrist thick
arm long, skin dark
penetrating the ooze
for worm, snail, small fish or scant shrimp
to sate

Light treads
the surface derm
it looks for chlorophyll
to leave energy, life to grow
I'm here

Age slow
but sure of death
there’s no return to salt
our mother Sargasso, wide arms
empty

by Keith Suddrey

Sea Cow

Heavy
Slow dignity
Magic-porridge-pot-snout
Gently grazing the ocean floor
Harmless

Rising
just to look at
that shadow of movement
A whirl: men’s blades scarring, wounding
Punished

by Alistair Wilkinson

Manatee

Look at
the great sadness
Dignity made naïve
A man’s evolution of scars
Sinking

World map
Losing its way
Not knowing when to stop
A confusion of directions
Nowhere

by Alistair Wilkinson

Manatee

The manatee’s slow, heavy dignity
His movements, careful, searching, grazing, sure
Magic-porridge-pot-snout digging for more
Mournful, shadowed, aged eyes, stare darkly
He’s pulled by a deep curiosity
Unwary giant, close to the shore
No enemies, a friend on the sea floor
Rising, ponderous, poised, just so he can see
But he rises to a hull’s black shadow
Drawn by the spinning of blurred propellers
He hears it, feels it, a pulse rippling
His huge flanks. Rising, rising, shallow
His grey skin, his short flippers, his whiskers
A human evolution of scarring

by Alistair Wilkinson

Polar Bear

White sky
Wind-howl tundra
Majestic, powerful
Hunter prowling on melting ice
Save me!

Collective poem by Rowena Sommerville and Frozen Ark collective

The Zebra

Black white
Young foals prancing
Hoof beats on the grassland
Hunters see through the camouflage
Hide them

by Cléa Audin

Marbled Polecat

Black Mask
Feisty Creature
My fur like marble cake
Stop attacking my home and prey 
I shriek

by Mafalda Costa

Loggerhead Turtle

Strong Jaw
Hard, heart shaped shell
I eat mollusc and whelk
I wish you’d leave my nest alone
Swim Free

by Jude Smith

Blue Whale

Immense
Long traveller
Protector of the sea
Heart of a Volkswagen beetle
Come back

by Hollie Lane

Violet Click Beetle

Click clack
Danger abounds
My world turned upside down
But these predators won’t catch me
Click, flip

by Jordan Cuff

Horrid Ground-weaver, Notophantes horridus

Horrid
I weave alone
Sheet of silk, to what end?
In Plymouth I perish, my home
For theirs

by Jordan Cuff

Manx Shearwater 

Manxie 
Puffinus twice
burrow in warm bracken
laugh in the night air overhead
skim waves

by Sarah Morgan

Solenodon

Venom
In slotted teeth
A true living fossil
Forests gone, predators arise
I fall 

 by Lydia Hudson

Poems by Rowena Sommerville and Paul Evans

Echidna

Unique
Long-beaked mammals
Egg-laying monotremes
Phylogenetic oddity
Too few

by Sommerville and Evans

Partula tohiveana

Glass tanks
Make a home for
Slithery survivors
Marooned gastropod mollusca
Shell-shocked

by Sommerville and Evans

European Hedgehog

Scratchy
Hotchi-witchi
Spiky itchy furzepig
Bristling in rounded self-defence
Sweet-faced

by Sommerville and Evans

Great Yellow Bumblebee

Golden
Bright dumbledore
Soft velvet doodlebug
Fumbling the machair’s red clover
Humming

by Sommerville and Evans