Inspired by Nature is a themed Croak to entertain you with art and creative writing based on nature and the outdoors. We hope it will stimulate you to get creative and produce something yourself. If you do and would like to share them with us, please post them on our Facebook page, Twitter account, or email us at info@froglife.org
This months feature has been written by Rebecca Neal our Conservation Youth Worker on the Peterborough Green Pathways project, funded by BBC Children in Need.
Over the last few weeks Green Pathwayers have been helping out with exciting new stuff at Froglife’s urban reserve in Peterborough, the Boardwalks. One of the things we are planning to provide for families visiting the site, is a challenge trail, to encourage them to connect with the environment, and to try something new. We are going to set out these challenges on a series of sculptures around the site, and the challenges will be written as poems. Young people have been working with professional poet Keely Mills to create these poems inspired by the site.
Here is what she has written so far:
Please play tag with three different trees.
Touch them all at once with your hands & knees.
Ask them how they are? Say a quick hello.
Hold a branch in the sun, hug them in the snow
Rest awhile, count three separate leaves.
Shhh, listen to the sound of birds & the breeze.
Run, walk or hop zig zag through the wood.
Rushing in the hay will always do you good.
Pick the long grass fashion them into a heart.
Make a tail, tickle someone into a happy laugh.
Grab a stick, prepare for an Olympic mission.
Throwing them further than your competition.
To keep pools algae free & a healthy place for amphibians to be.
Stop your dogs from having a swim, it leaves the frogs feeling grim.
We don’t want to offend, scare, or be rude, find out why we warn on froglife’s youtube.
Take a video, a snap, and do a tweet, tell the world this message to keep ponds clean.
Here is one written by Froglifer Cat Duerden:
Using things you find around,
Make a picture on the ground,
Of something natural that you see –
Perhaps this snake, or a willow tree?
Take a photo, what could be easier?
Then share it with Froglife on social media!
Then Keely suggested we try some Dylan Thomas couplets. These are poems in two lines, which start with a question involving the senses, and then a series of four nouns and adjectives. I wrote these using words from a group of young people from Ken Stimpson Community School. I am not sure ours completely follow the form, but here they are:
Have you ever jumped in a puddle?
Splashing water, soaked boots, friendly banter, loud laughter
Have you ever laid on your back and looked at the sky?
Hard ground, ticklish grass, fluffy clouds, drifting birds
Have you ever built a den?
Woody sticks, big achievement, comfortable shelter, happy team
Have you ever hugged a tree?
Twiggy friend, bird house, jagged skin, leafy clothes