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Poetry Friday: Swimming Lessons

Happy Friday everyone!

I've been nattering on about the frogs and tadpoles and salamanders quite a bit, but they are not the only younglings we've seen this spring. A couple of weeks ago, my husband was lucky enough to get a brief glimpse of a Mama Duck leading her ducklings across the grass, but they had disappeared into the hedge by the time he tried to point them out to me. Ever since then I've been eagerly looking for them, hoping to catch them on another field trip. 

Earlier this week, we were walking in a light rain when we saw a lone duck on a log in the moat.

a duck standing in the rain on a log suspended across a moat

"Something looks odd about how she's standing," I said to my husband. "Look at how her wings are positioned." That's when we realized - this was Mama Duck, sheltering her ducklings from the rain! We were excited to see them, even if we couldn't see them, since Mama was such a good umbrella.

Yesterday, it was overcast but not raining, and Mama Duck had her ducklings out for a swim.
Mother duck with ducklings swimming

There are actually five ducklings - one brave adventurer is hard to see in this photo but he was swimming off to the right in the shadow of the building. Of course, now that I'd gotten to really see them, I had to write a poem for this duck family.

Swimming Lessons

Mama glides smoothly
while
ducklings paddle furiously
darting
to and fro
creating concentric circles.

Venn diagrams 
of family. 

© 2021 Elisabeth Norton


Today Poetry Friday is celebrating Mary Lee's retirement from teaching. Just like this mama is teaching her ducklings how to navigate their world, so educators like Mary Lee help children and young people learn the skills they'll need to make their way in our world. Thanks to Mary Lee and all the educators out there who nurture the citizens of the future, today!

Today's Poetry Friday is being hosted by Christie over at Wondering and Wandering. Do wander over to see the poetry that is being shared today and to help celebrate Mary Lee's retirement!


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Comments

  1. Bridget MageeMay 21, 2021 at 7:59 PM

    I love that your sharp eye saw the mama "duck-brella" moment, Elisabeth! Your 'Venn diagrams of family' is such a clever way to describe these quackers. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ElisabethMay 27, 2021 at 3:53 PM

      Thanks! It was a real surprise - I hadn't realized that Mama ducks would do that for their ducklings.

      Delete
  2. TabathaMay 22, 2021 at 2:10 PM

    Yay, Venn diagrams of family! As a fan of Venn diagrams, I really don't see them mentioned in poems nearly often enough :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ElisabethMay 27, 2021 at 3:55 PM

      Tabatha - me too! When I saw the concentric circles that was the first thing that came to mind and I was chuffed to be able to work that into a poem. :-)

      Delete
  3. author amokJune 3, 2021 at 8:40 PM

    Venn Diagrams of family -- such a great image. I can picture it exactly! We have lots of toads in our garden this year. Busy eating the cicadas, most likely.

    ReplyDelete

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