For Creativity Challenge Day 36: Invigorate
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Tipping The Turtle
Enervated by too much
Holiday. Mind wants
to flutter and flit around,
stirring up images like
a spoon moving through
thick soup.
Finding it difficult to get
from there to here: this
present moment. Like
a turtle flipped on its
back, unable to right
itself, move forward.
Need an injection of energy,
something to invigorate
my blood stream, instead
of the slow sludge it has
become, willing only to
ooze slowly, or not at all.
Then remember the promises
made, to a world held captive
by fear, tied to a reality
of possibilities of darkened
distress. Pressed from all
directions.
And so I begin, forming words,
sorting thoughts, finding a path
that can be followed. Tipping
turtle back on its feet, tapping
its shell to keep it moving
toward beckoning light and safety.
Elizabeth Crawford 12/26/2016
Notes: I’m the one who chooses these words each day. Thought this was a good one, until I got up this morning and was completely blank. Then Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath came into my head. The turtle in the third chapter, moving slowly toward some unknown destination. Like the Joad family, all their possessions piled in that old truck, in search of an unknowable future. In the movie, perhaps for Artistic flair, the truck and the turtle make contact on the highway heading west. The turtle is flipped on its back and slides to the side of the road, a very dangerous reality for the turtle. Having once helped a turtle out of that same situation, the words began to form and I was once again able to move forward. In one Native American Creation story, it is the turtle who comes to the rescue of the Sky Woman who fell from the heavens and rubs mud on the turtle’s back to create the North American continent, otherwise known as Turtle Island.
Soul's Music 
Thanks for this wonderful tale of the Turtle!
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of darkened distress.
Pressed from all directions.
That is the situation for everyone, more or less entrapped and being pressured!. The idea is to get out of the shell and venture out! Very true Elizabeth. One must find one’s direction all the time!
Hank
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Ah. Such motivation is definitely required to carry on with our vocations on a daily basis. Well-penned. 🙂
-HA
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Glad the turtle is back on track!
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I like the way you examined the idea of a turtle’s movements, and it working through its natural limitations, to attain it’s goals.
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I love this! Your descriptions are oh so vivid! 🙂
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I love the legend of Sky Woman. Right now north America feels in the same peril as poor turtle. Thankfully millions of people with good hearts are doing all they can to help it. Your poem being one such gift.
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I did “turtle time” once in my life. It seemed a long, dark time before I righted myself and carried on. Your poem is so beautifully descriptive!
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Love the imagery…both of the spoon moving through thick soup and of the tipped turtle on its back.
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We must never give up when tipped over. Thank you for the inspiration.
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Ah – forming words, sorting thoughts…..you have described so well what a poet does. I do like thinking about the imagery of the turtle.
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