Same Title Challenge

A 220-year-old taken from American waters in 1982 holds the official Guinness Book of World Records oldest animal title. Unofficially, the record belongs to a 374-year-old Icelandic clam housed in a German museum.

The new clam is at least 30 years older, according to the Bangor University team. The animal died when the researchers counted its rings.

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Angeline said:

I'm not sure that everyone has posted yet but I had to say this is an impressive group of poems. All informative, some more ironic and funny, some more straightforward, some more thoughtful, some more wistful. We do good work together folks.

I think we should try this again and soon!

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Cinner said:

I came looking for Harry Hill and found you! It's been a delightful morning reading your poems!

Thanks!

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butters said:

i've enjoyed reading every single one. *nods*
so far there are 3 that speak more to me than the others, but everyone will have their own favourites.

count me in for next time!

when it looks like everyone's posted, i'll stick my comments here on all poms.

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Remec said:

Yes, yes, I'm late, again...seems to be the story more often than not these days...but assuming I can sort things out (figures that the muses would be over active instead of missing in action for a change), I'll have something up today or tomorrow morning...

*sigh*

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UnderYourSpell said:

Didn't we do well ?!!! *You may now pat yourselves on the back*

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UnderYourSpell said:

Consider the sex-life of a mollusc
who one year is Charlie, then Flo
when the heat down below on the seabed
raises expectations to grow
a different appendage than last year,
while clinging spellbound to a rock,
is this sudden appearance a godsend
or does it come as one hell of a shock?

Whilst squirting his stuff out at random
does he watch Argonaut Octopi
with envy at sexual prowess
as a detached penis swims by?

So next time you tip back an Oyster
and it slips down your throat like a treat,
spare a thought for who you just swallowed,
last year was he Petra or Pete?

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bronzeage said:

Nanoclams and Other Mollusks

Nanoclams and other Mollusks live between the tides
trapped in the margins where dry land rides
the ocean and holds us high above the world,
where we walk in the light and sleep curled
and entwined, safe and unaware of the truth,
nanoclams and other mollusks, since the youth
of this planet earth have been the glue and binder
that holds Earth together and without would find her
scattered across the galaxy and universe
leaving us to crawl in the debris, or worse.

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HarryHill said:

Nano-Clams and other Molluscs

Inundo:

Oh snap, you freakin nano-clams,
pop and crackle, yeah.
Lay your nano-babble down, sweet and slimy.
Grimy annoying absolute absurdity,
are you real,
or just another Sabbath spoiler
masquerading as a mollusk?

Exant:

What'sa matter with mistress mollusc?
Initiate investigation,
she's gone limp'n loose,
derma's turned'a livid hue,
what's your problem, languorous Sue?

Your suckers pucker, pensive pouts,
echoed by your nano-clam;
has invertebrateness become such'a stone
that you would crave'a bone?

Decant:

So flow, you freakin nano clams,
take your silly hyphen too.
Crawl away you many mollusca,
snap, crackle, and pop into
the bottle from whense you came.

Sue, you can stay. Cocktail?

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Angeline said:

Nano Clams And Other Molluscs
(A Glosa)

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."
-Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter

The time has come," the Walrus said
to wash into the brine,
cast away earthly delights,
fleshy limbs and spine
and live among the quiet deeps.
Yes. It might be fine

to talk of many things
but think on losing speech!
On touch undone, nacreous, beslimed,
all words beyond my reach,
and even reach beyond my ken?
We declaimed on the beach

of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
of meadows and of foam
that courses here so close by us
and so far from my home.
"His house has many mansions,"
so the walrus did intone

Of cabbages and kings
of life below a reef
a mantle there but not a hearth
a foot, a head, no teeth,
grit that may in time bear pearl,
the watery relief

and why the sea is boiling hot
or why the sky is green,
the several ways the ocean wins,
the triumph of saline.
Oh his persuasion wearied me.
I longed to be made clean.

Hence I've come to slow and drift
to sink, see what it brings,
sense light filter through the murk,
know when a dolphin sings,
never worry past the sand
and whether pigs have wings.

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Tristesse2 said:

In shallow pools,
low tide exposed,
on rocks in gardens
seaweed sowed lurk
molluscs
often overlooked
for speedier folk like
shrimp or crab
escaping sideways,
weapon ready just in case.
Clustered tiny mussel-squatters
shouldering on an empty shell
that suddenly declares another lodger
scrambling, claws first, into view.
Whelks and winkles, clammy cousins
bearing very different armour,
bustle slowly barnacle-bound.
A nano-ocean, crèche for young,
exposed and seeking safety.
Wade warily, don't mess with the
molluscs.​

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butters said:

nano-clams and other molluscs

immeasurable, the tidal sweep,
to creatures small as grains of sand
that favour jet-propulsion and
will seed-like secrets safely keep.

what warms an eyeless clam's thin blood?
how beats a tiny shellfish heart?
is love, like food, a filtered art?
a happy clam a clam in mud?

Ming, the arctic bivalve, swam
far longer than his hinged-shell friends;
did his means prolong his ends?
was Ming the king of all his clan?

do other molluscs all aspire
to live and filter? give their pledge?
surviving, walk the razor's edge,
evade the pan, and fear the fire?

scallops, with their many eyes,
discern a distant, filtered sun
yet, still, from fate they cannot run
and timeless seas shall fall, and rise.


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http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2007/10/071029-oldest-clam.html

405 years old, and it died having its rings counted. it was alive when shakespeare was writing. *sigh*

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Tzara said:

Nano-Clams and Other Molluscs

From clam or oyster, cell-sized seedling
First drifts to silt on ocean's floor
And there it burrows, needful, needling
Betwixt some rocks. It leaves no spoor
For predators who might be lunching,
And grows a shell to escape crunching
By random sea star or clawed crab,
The both of which would love to grab
Our little bivalve, who's quite meaty
(And tasty too!) and make an end
Of our shy, mild molluscan friend.
'Twould be a pity—he's a sweetie—
But if these shellfish have to die,
They're best when breaded and deep fried.

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Angeline said:

I just read through all the entries thus far and I am hard-pressed to pick favorites. There are things I love (and some I don't) about each poem (mine included). A few observations that are just my little old opinions so feel free to disagree.

I love that we have a fair representation of form poems. Mine and Tzara's, obviously, but UYS is writing some form I don't recognize (or she is just sticking to a meter from verse to verse). And butters' poem is a little form-like to me as she repeats questions across strophes.

Harry's and Tess's poems seem similar in that they both have a real stream-of-consciousness feel. Harry's tone feels more funny and irreverent (even jazzy!) and Tess's more wistful to me.

I love the way bronz uses enjambment. It gives his poem a really nice flow. I'm dying to change the line breaks though to make the rhyming softer. It's really lovely writing.

I am thrilled to see Mr. Dreamer posting as I've read and loved so many of his poems here over the years. Love how his poem suddenly moves in a different direction in the last two lines. It works so well.

And Cinner I don't know you (I don't think), but your poem is lovely and you are the only one who made the B-movie connection thus far. That line in your poem conjures the creature from the black lagoon and all those old movies. And you did it in one line!

Like I said hard to pick a fave.

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CharleyH said:

I think you all win.

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Tristesse2 said:

What CH said.

hello sugartits!

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Angeline said:

I just read through all the entries thus far and I am hard-pressed to pick favorites. There are things I love (and some I don't) about each poem (mine included). A few observations that are just my little old opinions so feel free to disagree.

I love that we have a fair representation of form poems. Mine and Tzara's, obviously, but UYS is writing some form I don't recognize (or she is just sticking to a meter from verse to verse). And butters' poem is a little form-like to me as she repeats questions across strophes.

Harry's and Tess's poems seem similar in that they both have a real stream-of-consciousness feel. Harry's tone feels more funny and irreverent (even jazzy!) and Tess's more wistful to me.

I love the way bronz uses enjambment. It gives his poem a really nice flow. I'm dying to change the line breaks though to make the rhyming softer. It's really lovely writing.

I am thrilled to see Mr. Dreamer posting as I've read and loved so many of his poems here over the years. Love how his poem suddenly moves in a different direction in the last two lines. It works so well.

And Cinner I don't know you (I don't think), but your poem is lovely and you are the only one who made the B-movie connection thus far. That line in your poem conjures the creature from the black lagoon and all those old movies. And you did it in one line!

Like I said hard to pick a fave.

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