Writing Prompt #20
creature teachers
We spent Mother’s Day on the Oregon Coast. On this trip, we visited the Hatfield Marine Science Center. “Located in Newport, Oregon, Hatfield Marine Science Center is Oregon State University's marine lab. It serves as a base for distinguished oceanographic research and education and provides academic programs and opportunities for students in secondary and post-secondary education.”
The Center is an excellent and educational experience for kids and adults and they have an octopus! She was lurking in the back of her tank, until…Voilà! I watched My Octopus Teacher (and cried my eyes out, btw). A few years ago, a dead Giant Pacific Octopus washed up at Bayview State Park. Until now, I have never seen an octopus this close and in motion —unfurling her majestic arms right in front of us! The Oregon Coast Aquarium (located next to Hatfield) has a resident octopus, as does the Seattle Aquarium. On past visits, we end of playing the game—where is the octopus? This appearance was very special.
Seeing this fine specimen reminded me of that recent anthology, Three Hearts: Anthology of Cephalopod Poetry edited by Sierra Nelson and published by World Enough Writers (who are based in Newport, OR).
Three Hearts: An Anthology of Cephalopod Poetry features the lyrical work of 129 contributors, including poems, prose poems, art, and more, inspired by the Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish, Chambered Nautilus, Ammonite, and Nautiloids.
This core-sample of contemporary, cephalopod-inspired writing reflects the variety of ways cephalopods intersect with our human lives and enter our creative inner worlds. The poems range in tone and style: heartbreaking, strange, reverent, funny, inspired by facts, steeped in the personal. Some poems feature speakers longing to be a cephalopod, or take on a first-person perspective: human mirror neurons firing empathetically like a squid’s reflective iridophores. Many of the narrative pieces focus on a meaningful encounter between a human and a cephalopod. All over the world, in liminal spaces between earth, air, and sea—on the shore, by a tidepool, on a dock, on a boat, while swimming, while diving, in an aquarium, in a lab—so many human beings are having a moment with a cephalopod, which gives me some hope for humanity.
I have a poem in this collection called “Epitaph for an Octopus” about Paul, the German octopus who became a great predictor of sporting events. I was obsessed with him and was grateful to find a home for this poem alongside so many other octopus-lovers!
Writing Prompt: Creature Teacher
Now it is your turn. Choose an animal that you are drawn to or one that you know a bit about. It could be an octopus or it could be a dog. What have you learned about this animal, what do you want to know? What is your relationship to this creature and what have they taught you about yourself?
In “Eight Facts About Octopuses" by Martha Silano (which is also in the anthology), the poet lists her facts 1-8 and shares a wide range of information about this important creature in each small section. Eight is appropriate because the octopus has eight arms. What distinguishing feature of your creature will help shape the form of your writing.
You can try numbering your facts or just free write in poetry or prose. Feel free to post your work and/or a picture of your “creature teacher” below.
I love your poem about Paul! That ending is so perfect.💜