Clockwise from top left: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, John Keats, and You
What do all these people have in common? Well, they’re all poets in case you didn’t know it. On Nov. 21 2009, two years ago to the day, Jonathan Losos contributed the first Anole Annals blog post. The post contained a few of my Anolis themed haikus including:
Poe named an anole
williamsmittermeieror’m:
Ponder, weak, weary.
AND
Perched on a warm day,
Dewlap dewlap dewlap dew –
Blackbird predation.
In celebration of two years and 369 anole-related posts that followed, Anole Annals is hosting a poetry slam for all you anole wordsmiths out there.
Over the next two weeks, we challenge you to create a poem or poems in any form (e.g. haiku, limerick, sonnet, lyric, quatrain etc.). The only requirement is that they relate to anoles in some way. Submit your poem to AA in the comment section of this post (use the Anoles in Art and Literature category link on the right side of the AA main page to help you re-find this post when it is buried by subsequent posts). On Monday, December 4th, I’ll compile all the entries into a new post where members of the AA community can vote for their favorite entry. Voting rules are still being determined but will likely be some sort of run-off procedure.
The winner of the contest will get front page billing for their poem on AA along with his or her picture. Imagine the prestige! Also, if enough people contribute poems and consent, I’ll edit the poems into a single electronic volume that will be linked to AA permanently, bestowing internet glory upon all contributors. So, renew your poetic license and get your poem on!
- DNA Sequencing from Formalin-Preserved Specimens - December 16, 2014
- Sans the Claws, Anoles Present Under The Trees? - December 5, 2014
- Out Damned Spot! Or, How They’d Be Loving If They Weren’t Fighting - November 18, 2014
Rich Glor
I love that all of the rewards offered to readers of Anole Annals consist of advertising someones anole nerdiness to other readers of this blog. I hope the poetry slam winner is someone who finds a rhyme for some bizarre anole species name.
Rich Glor
PS – Its worth pointing out that the first two posts to Anole Annals – one published in November 2009 and the second in May of 2010 – are outliers because the blog didn’t really get rolling with daily or near daily posts until late in October of 2010. All the more impressive that we’ve already racked up 369 posts!
marthamunoz
Haiku for my thesis:
Alpine lizard warm
Lonely sitting on a rock
Missing life on trees
marthamunoz
Quatrain inspired by some anoles I saw fighting in Guadeloupe:
Noiseless among the wild brush anoles fight –
Jaws interlocked, poised to meet the maker,
Loser weak and weary stumbles from sight,
While the victor gets all the… cloaker?
marthamunoz
Correction: Cloaker should read “cloac-er”
Ambika Kamath
Haiku about noise in behavioural data:
Running down to feed
Focal anole stops, displays.
Predictions be damned.
marthamunoz
2 haikus about herpetologists influencing anole names…
williamsi! strahmi!
No we didn’t start the fire.
bremeri! wattsi!
shrevei gundlachi!
garridoi witemani!
woodi websteri!
marthamunoz
Limerick based on A. cristatellus’ invasion of Florida:
There once was an anole from San Juan
Who saw bugs on a boat and hopped on.
He set up a new home in Miami
And the closeness to home was uncanny.
“Wow,” he thought, “Now I’ll never be gone!”
Robert Grogan
Sorry I came to the party late. Was on vacation in Florida and became transfixed by anolis. Here is a haiku using only words formed with the letters a, n, o, l, and e.
A lean neon loon.
A lone anole alone.
On a lane one noon.
Yoel Stuart
Just re-found this Robert. It’s fantastic!