One evening, as we were getting ready for bed, my young son looked me dead in the eyes and announced that he hates reading, because books are boring.
As a children’s librarian and writer, once I pulled the metaphorical knife out of my heart, I put my money where my mouth is, and followed the professional advice I’ve been giving families for years. I let his interests guide me, and borrowed a bunch of books that take advantage of his current fixation in the hopes of luring him back into the land of the bookworms.
Thanks to our amazing public libraries, whether your kiddos are into dinosaurs, princesses, unicorns, sharks, hockey, video games, soccer, chess, Taylor Swift, or pretty much anything else, there’s likely going to be at least a few books on the shelves that will hopefully speak to them. In the case of my son, his current obsession is snakes. Yes, snakes.
He’s a devotee of a Youtube channel called Snake Discovery, and as such has become an ardent amateur herpatologist. Where other children can name dozens of dinosaurs, my son can explain the difference between vermiculite and perlite when it comes to incubating snake eggs, and can identify different varieties of snakes based on whether they lay eggs or give birth to live babies.
What does all this have to do with poetry, you might ask. Well, while searching for books about snakes, I came across a few snake-themed poems, including this poignant treasure by D. H. Lawrence. If you haven’t read this poem before, I entreat you to read it in its entirety, because it’s deeply, deeply moving. I’ve included an excerpt from it below, but really do encourage you to read the entire poem. The end is a gut punch, and one that stayed with me a long while after.
One of the reasons I’m so happy to encourage my son’s interest in reptiles is because I believe it’s so important to instill in children a respect and appreciation for nature and all its creatures, including the ones that might seem strange or unusual or even a bit scary. It’s easy to care about the fate of cute critters like pandas, but things that slither and creep might be a bit of a harder sell. I’ve always been ambivalent towards snakes and reptiles in general, but thanks to my kiddo’s current obsession, I’m learning so much more about the natural world, and have gained a greater appreciation for all my slithery neighbours.
So – snakes. Yeah or nay?