An Original Animal Mask Poem by Linda at TeacherDance

I LOVE writing animal mask poems. It’s fun to imagine what animals might say to us if we could understand THEIR language. I enjoy speaking—poetically—in the voice of all kinds of creatures, including snails, caterpillars, ladybugs, eels, earthworms, lions, grizzly bears, and blue whales. A few weeks ago, I issued an invitation to blog readers to write animal mask poems and to share them with us. One blogger/poet accepted my invitation: Linda of TeacherDance.

Here is Linda’s lovely poem:

I was kept warm, quite safe and fed
and then surprised to hear the call
to leave home because I wasn’t meant
to stay there very long at all.

I began to push, to dry and move
the side door open, then it gave a sigh
I wiggled and jiggled till I was out
And I became a butterfly.

Note to Linda: I have a special gift for you. It’s Marilyn Singer’s wonderful collection of animal mask poems titled Turtle in July. It’s beautifully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. The collection is now out of print—unfortunately—so I don’t have a new book to give to you. I'll be sending you one of the paperback books that I used in my elementary classroom. (It’s in good condition.)