Shark Summer
Shark Summer Poetry Contest
The Aquarium of the Pacific is pleased to announce the winners of its poetry contest honoring sharks to commemorate Shark Summer.
Saluting the Aquarium’s Shark Summer, Aquarium members and guests were invited to participate in a poetry contest. The poets were asked to express their feelings about sharks and/or rays and to use no more than 200 words. All entries were judged by poets Will Alexander and Jeffrey Yang and Aquarium President and CEO Jerry Schubel and four winners were selected, a first place, second place, and a tie for third place.
Please enjoy the winning poems below.
Ellaraine Lockie—First Place
On Pacific coast
shark shaped rocks protrude from sand
High tide encircles
September high tide
swallows yesterday’s debris
Footprints disappear
Anna Leahy—Second Place
If You Were a Shark…
Short-nosed Sawshark, Bramble, or Prickly,
Horn or Houndshark, slide-glide and ride the tide.
Angel, your body slips kite-flat with pectoral fins.
Rough shark breeds in the deepest depths of the sea.
Knock-nosed Hammerhead, your eyes wide,
Silky, Milk, Thresher, Tiger, Pygmy, or Dogfish—
How flexible! How capable. Your cartilaginous structure
Arcs its electro-sensitive way through the waves,
Reeling with squalene for your buoyant adventure,
Knowing food moves you. Sleep is a swish-wish
So scarce that you do not shut your eyes,
Hoping to avert demise, minimize surprise.
Are you ready to fin-swim, spin on a whim?
Ready or not, evolution leads you to these primitive
Kindred spirits: sleek, thick-skinned, toothy, and wise.
Benjamin Morris—Third Place (tied)
Bait
Hand on rail, shoe on step,
you weather the pitch and yaw
of the boat: four hours already
in blinding wind and sun
and we’ve seen not a single shark.
No matter: among the crowds
we’ve seen each other,
our warm and waiting skin
caught in the clammy cage
of a wetsuit, watching those whose
desire has already fled the body.
Again you hand me a hook,
I, you, a line. And now
we’re on our fifth hour, no longer
sure what we’re waiting for,
any more, whether it’s a shark,
lifted thrashing and radiant
in the noontide sun, or
for me to pass you a towel,
a Coke, anything,
as we wait for this rolling
and heaving to cease, for
our breath to give in, for us
to suddenly, silently, go under.
Donna Ashbaugh—Third Place (tied)
Questions and Answers for a Shark
How do you stand it?
Being alone, independent of others?
Seems easy for you to stalk prey.
Some of your species value
cooperation; but no sharing meals.
You are feared; don’t suppose you care.
In spite of your apparent arrogant and
king-like powerful self, you have foes
who attack using surprise—
sea vessels snagging you with nets—
on accident some will say.
Others stalk you for your tasty fins.
Yet, you continue to rule in your watery realm.
We ask, are we like you?
You push from side to side to swim
through obstacles and adversity.
Even though we use collaboration among
ourselves, we have adversaries too,
and struggle to keep our species alive.
Danger follows us in our atmospheric world
and we continue on like you.
The Aquarium thanks everyone for entering. Congratulations to the winners. To see the award presentation for the poetry contest and to listen to the poems being read by their authors, please come to the poetry reading by Will Alexander on Wednesday, October 21.
