Minnows swim. Crabs hide.
Tides roll in, tides roll out,
drowned to drought.
Plovers pipe. Wren nest.
Mussels and clams filter waste
and toxins out.
Better yet, marshes ease
climate change, locking up
carbon in peat.
Herons wade. Egrets fish,
while the salty tide surges,
life’s drumbeat.
Copyright 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham
Notes: The world over, scientists are urging us to let coastlines return to marshes. Not only are they beautiful, but they prevent coastline erosion, keep fish populations high, and reduce pollution.
Happy Birthday, Lee Bennett Hopkins!! In honor of his birthday, I’m playing a new game, Add A Poem, winging this poem like a paper airplane toward Lee Bennett Hopkins’ anthology, Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems (illustrated by Virginia Halstead, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1999). Maybe you want to launch a poem celebrating science in his direction, too.
Happy Poetry Friday and thanks to Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge for hosting. Stop by for a celebration of Lee Bennett Hopkins’ birthday and a linkup of poetry for the week.
For more poems celebrating Spectacular Science, check out Christie Wyman who’s focusing on vernal pools and contributed her own poem celebrating science and Buffy Silverman who asked pertinent science questions in her poem Spring Questions.
68 thoughts on “Why Salt Marshes?”
Comments welcome!
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Friendly Fairy Tales 
So, wow! I adore he environmental message in this one! Poetry is very powerful.
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Thanks, Resa. Art can change the world. 🙂
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this is so elegance and the simplicity in your lines and words, makes this poem a musical melody…
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Thank you. I love how you are all about music, all the time. 🙂
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I love the simplicity and the power of this poem. A friend of mine, Christy Peterson has a book out on sale marshes.
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It looks wonderful. I love the horseshoe crab on the front. Here’s a link for any silent comment readers who might like salt marshes: http://www.christypeterson.com/2017/08/15/24-hours-in-a-salt-marsh-out-today/
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The book: 24 Hours in a Salt Marsh, Cavendish, Fall 2017
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If only the world would heed these words of caution, Brenda. Lovely powerful poem. Many thanks for the shout-out, too! Cheers!
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Cheers to you, too. I’m always happy to meet another pro-science poet.
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I love this poem, Brenda! When I taught third grade, our big field trip of the year was to a beach in New Haven that had a salt marsh at one edge. It was always so peaceful there. Even though they don’t go on this trip anymore, I’m going to share your poem with my 3rd grade colleagues. (Spectacular Science is one of my favorites, too!)
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I bet that those kids will remember that trip as a highlight of their early years. We never took a trip like that. Sigh…. I want to see the salt marches in early spring. I’m hoping to go one day this week.
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BRENDA…as a former Biology major, you have the ecological factors down very well! Bravo to you for bringing art to the estuary! 🙂
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I wanted to use the word “estuary” but I couldn’t make it work. I read that marshes absorb oil spills, protecting land creatures. But they don’t do the marshes any good, either.
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No, this doesn’t. and when people dredge up the clams, et al, chemicals are passed on up the food chain. 😦
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We’re still living longer than our ancestors did. Can’t be too unhappy about things.
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Well, no. Just some people. Salt marshes are beautiful places that help out in many ways. An estuary is mostly at the end of a stream or sizeable river, whereas salt marshes, like the freshwater marshes, can be almost anywhere in low-laying areas near the ocean… Happy is healthier! 🙂
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People didn’t live past their 40’s not so long ago. 40 was OLD! I like hearing this love of science from you. 🙂
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HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE EXCEPT CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS–WAS EASY. IN COLLEGE–HARD! I LIKE THE HUMANITIES BETTER!
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I’ve always loved science. 🙂
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I do…but couldn’;t do anything with it, so to speak.
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I’m surrounded by math, computer science and engineer types. But I write poetry. Go figure. 🙂
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Actually, poems require a certain amount of math in their rhythm, logical progression–or nit, and tapping into the chemistry of each reader. Physics? No clue! 🙂
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Poetry has rhythm — wave theory. 🙂
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THERE you go! 🙂
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
ORT-ORT-ORT-ORT! ANY ROOM FOR A HARBOR SEAL AMONGST THE RUSHES?
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Bottlenose dolphin come in to play, too. 🙂
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Oh yeah! 🙂
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Perfectly timed, with Earth Day coming up soon, an important reminder of the delicate balance of nature, and its incredible ability to heal itself, if only we humans would stop mucking things up!
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Yes, if only we weren’t ruining the earth and oceans!
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Lovely poem that captures the wonder of salt marshes. One of my favorite kayak tours was through a salt marsh where we stopped to explore many of the things included in your poem. I love the idea of adding more and more science poems. I’ll have to ponder and see what I come up with.
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It would be fun to keep adding, kid poetry fan non-fiction. 🙂
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I don’t know about getting them to return. I’d settle if we stopped development that encroaches on the ones that remain.
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That would be a good start.
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I love that you and Buffy and Christie were all on the same page… or at least you had your noses in the same book! Thanks for teaching me a thing or two about salt marshes. Life’s drumbeat, indeed.
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I have to admit that I enticed Christie into it via email, and I even tried to lure Sara Tuttle, but alas, she had a cruel deadline. And thanks, I’m glad you like my drumbeat.
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I love the idea of locking in carbon, of being a filter. Wonderful connection of science and poetry!
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Thanks, Laura. I won’t ever look at salt marshes that same way after the research I did. 🙂
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I guess we were on the same wavelength this week–thanks for linking my poem. And for the marsh love!
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My pleasure.
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I explored salt marshes by the sea of Cortez several times with my students, Brenda. They are fascinating, wonderful creations of Mother Nature’s. Sad to know that so many have been filled in. Your poem brings in so much of their abundant help.
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It required a lot of boiling to get it that short. A surprising number of things live in salt marshes. 🙂
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I like your peat line and it reminded me of this poem Joyce wrote me for a swap: https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/2017/12/grow-on-me-like-moss.html Glad to revisit it and think about the joys of moss!
My favorite-est is your simple “Plovers pipe.” 🙂
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I was surprised to learn that researchers in the UK are studying how much carbon can be locked into salt marshes and peat bogs. But it was fascinating. And thanks!
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Science + poetry = dynamite combination. Love your inspired, informative poem, Brenda. Important stuff!
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Thanks, Jama. Salt marshes are fascinating! And it was fun to explore the question-and-answer poetic form.
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Lovely poem celebrating an environmental necessity. 🙂
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Thanks, it was fun reading up on marshes.
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Absolutely beautiful and should be in all biology books.
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Thanks!
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I’d love to spend some time in some salt marshes. This was my favorite line in your poem: “while the salty tide surges,/
life’s drumbeat.” Lovely poem, Brenda!
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Thanks, Molly. I love hearing the birds in salt marshes. They sound free and happy.
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Very beautiful, Brenda! 🙂
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Thanks!
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🙂
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I loved these lines,
“Mussels and clams filter waste
and toxins out. ”
Gives one a new appreciation for these critters, and for a salt water marsh overall–Terrific poem Brenda, Thanks!
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It was hard to try to fit that concept into a poem, without making the poem heavy as stone. I’m so glad you like that line.
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Such a great informational poem. When I was growing up we had a marsh (not a salt marsh) on the edge of our property. My brothers and I loved it! We moved away and years later I visited the property… and a housing development had been built over it. I was so sad!
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We had a swampy area near us, too. Frogs, ducks, tadpoles, dragonflies… I loved how it hummed and teemed with life.
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I am lucky to live where we are surrounded by salt marshes! Thanks for this wonderful poem and post, Brenda, and for joining the LBH celebration today! :0)
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Thanks for hosting a fun party, Robyn. I would love to be surrounded by salt marshes. How lucky you are.
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wonderful how mother nature tries to help us
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She is the best engineer. 🙂
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I love this poem. When we moved into our house in the country years ago, our front field/yard was a cornfield. We didn’t renew the cornfield lease but let the field/yard go back to nature. It now is home to all kinds of plants and wildlife. I think if you can let nature go back to nature (hah) it encourages all kinds of growth.
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Wildlife needs a place to live. We need our wild spaces to feed our souls. I love how connected we are through nature.
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Groovy scenes. 😎🥀😎🥀😎🥀😎🥀
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Salt Marshes are gorgeous.
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