Welcome to Poetry Friday! I’m happy to be your host today. (WARNING: If you are snake-phobic, close your eyes and scroll to the end of the post to leave your link!)
My younger kiddo and her spouse came for a Passover visit last week. While they were here, we ventured to Saugatuck State Park, one of our favorite places to hike along Lake Michigan. I stopped suddenly when we reached the dunes–an Eastern Hognose snake was basking in the sand. I’m not in the habit of trying to get a rise out of a snake, but the hognose puts on a wonderful performance when it feels threatened. It sucks in air, puffs up its neck, and lifts its head like a cobra (hence the nickname “puff adder.”) If that doesn’t convince a predator to back off, the snake plays dead (sometimes vomiting and giving off a musky smell.) Apparently this hognose did not see me or my camera as a threat–it slithered off into the woods along the side of the dune without any performance.
I remember watching the hognose’s act with my kids many years ago when we first moved to Michigan. I have not seen a hognose snake in our neighborhood for a long time, but they once frequented our backyard. In honor of those long-ago snakes and our recent encounter, I wrote a mask poem about a hognose today.
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Thank you for hosting Friday’s poetry event. I did enjoy your poem, written in acts, about the hognose snake. I do, however, hope this is as close as I ever to one.
Buffy, every time I read your post and try to write a comment, something interferes. I have never seen a snake as long and not heard of this snake. This snake also shares his yoga pose, the cobra. I would be nervous to venture close to the snake with my camera. You are brave! Thanks for hosting.
Yes to snake drama! I enjoyed that poem, Buffy. For a while my son had a garter snake named Snakey, but eventually let him go. Snakey did not linger even for a split second. I’ve since found out that it’s illegal, of course, to keep wild animals. The hognose snake brought back some memories.
Thank you for hosting this week, Buffy. I’m definitely in the snake-phobic camp, but I enjoyed your clever mask poem and learning more about this tricky snake.
Terrific poem, Buffy! What a great sssssserendipitous writing prompt!
Thank you for hosting, Buffy! I love the 3 acts in your poem!
Buffy, your mask poem is wonder-filled. How fun that you caught this and could write about it. My latest snake encounter was on a hike with my adult son and pup on a mountain trail. Thankfully, it was a (recently?) dead rattler. It looked like it might have been nabbed, then dropped -by a raptor? Who knows. My pup “found” it. I was just happy it happened to be dead by then!
I’m definitely snake-leery, but I love the photo and the three act poem. Making it a mask poem was another brilliant move. It almost makes me like the snake and wish I’d seen it with you…almost! Thanks so much for hosting!
Love the three acts and the line breaks that seem to add so much to the drama.
I love the way you created a play. Such drama! I have never heard of a hognose snake! Fascinating creature and clever one!
Great combination of drama and facts. Fun poem! Thanks for getting us to enjoy a snake in spite of ourselves and thanks for hosting.
Your snake-love is showing, Buffy! Love the poem. We had a rather large corn snake visitor this week. He was sunning on the road where we walk each morning and was a bit of a showboat—we took lots of pictures! Thanks for hosting. xo
I did have to look away from the pictures. I am very scared of snakes and when young boys find this out, they love to torture me with fake ones. At Christmas my grown up son-in-law got in on the fun and put a fake snake near my chair around the outdoor fire. It took a long time for me to notice, but when I screamed, there were uproars of laughter. Thanks for hosting.
I do love your snakey poem, the way it’s written in form and three acts, and how you get in the facts with fun language.
Sorry for provoking your fear, Margaret–after I wrote this I worried that I might be torturing someone (unlike your son-in-law’s intentional crime!)
Buffy ~ your inner Snakey tells all!
Thanks for teaching me about this interesting creature…who is full of insecurities like the rest of us.
You didn’t have to rhyme, but Snakey’s poem is satisfyingly anchored by each rhyme.
I love that you wrote this in three acts! And what a cool picture of the snake!
Ssssuper three act poem, Buffy! You’re the master of intertwining facts and fun in poetry. Thanks for hosting! 🙂
We had way too many close encounters with rattlesnakes while living in Tucson. I have a healthy respect for all kinds of snakes and their innate ability to avoid confrontation – a puking hognose is a bit hiss-terical!
I love the ‘play’, Buffy, and all the info you placed in the poem. I did know about the “puff” and that nickname, but not about the throwing up for smell. And I liked your wrap-up, “our story/etched/in hillside sand.” What a wonderful place to go to for you! Thanks for hosting!
Wonderful poem. I enjoyed the 3 acts. Thanks for sharing.
I love snakes, and the hognose is one of my son’s and my favorites. Love your story, Buffy! He/she sounds a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Thanks for hosting!
How fun that you wrote this in three acts, Buffy! Very entertaining. I had to search the internet to see if hognose snakes are venomous, and apparently, they are only MILDLY venomous. Hmmm. One article said that bites can be treated with mint mouthwash!
Thank you for hosting this week!
Enough venom to slow down a toad…not likely to harm a human!
I am a bit snake phobic, but I powered through your description and poem of the hognose snake (Are they poisonous?). He does put on quite a performance! Thanks for hosting us this week.
As I said to Tracey, enough venom to slow down a toad or other prey–not enough to harm a human. And very unlikely to strike at a person.
Fascinating reptilian tales, Buffy. Love the resultant poem. It’s snakey shape, its vivid vverbs, it’s revealing three acts. You have most successfully transposed those snakey facts into a cleverly constructed poem. Thank you for Hognose insights and hosting duties.
Those are some awesome pictures, Buffy – and a terrific poem! Love the three acts. I hope you and your family had a lovely visit for the holiday. You all have a good story to tell, at any rate! Thankssss for hosting.
Yes to sharing the snake’s point-of-view! It’s hard to be mad at somebody who wants you to go away so much they puke, haha. Thanks for hosting!
This is so simply fabulous. I love it as three acts – the drama is dead on, and that last stanza slays. (Excuse the killing metaphors!) Thank you so much for hosting…and for experiencing this for all of us. xo, a.
Thank you for sharing this super snake foto, your hognose history & the sSS-shaped clever action poem.
In our family we’e had several good encounters of the snake kind, thru the years meaning close sighting but no harm from the moccasins (2X) or rattlesnake (1×0. And of course Florida’s blue indigo snake is a treasure. More snake posts are fine with me!
You are inspiring me to write about the cornsnake we came upon recently, in a sandy pine woods, with it’s head down a pocket gopher hole.
Appreciations for being a host with great reptile mojo!
Jan/Bookseedstudio
Buffy, What a fun poem. I hadn’t heard of a mask poem, but I wasn’t surprised to read it’s told from someone/something else’s perspective. Then I looked again and see the shape of the poem looks slithery like the snake moving. I love to see snake tracks in the sand here in the desert, so one of my favorite lines is “our story etched / in hillside sand” Thank you for hosting today, Buffy!
*shivers* oh! Quite the sighting. Enjoyed your poem — its melodrama, suspense and interesting information. Didn’t know about hognose snakes before. When it comes to snakes, I’m happier reading about them here than seeing one in person! Thanks for the slithery story and for hosting this week!
Eeeeeeek! I’ve always hated snakes. But, the older I get, the more I appreciate that they are living things that need love too. I’m so glad you had family together for the holiday. I appreciate that more and more as time passes too. The drama of this poem is fantastic! I have a few middle schoolers who will love it…they seem to love drama especially these days. So, I’ve kept my eyes open, read a fantastic poem about a snake and I’m still alive! Woot! That advice to do something that scares you everyday? Check!
Love your poem Buffy, great idea to put it in 3 acts, and I like the recoiling movement back and forth so fitting of the snake—and it reads so well out loud! I do like snakes, at least the ones that aren’t killer-poisonous. We’ve been to Saugatuk and the State Park, now I’d like to go again. Thanks for hosting us, happy exploring!
Love the Three Act poem and all the ways the hognose has adapted to protect itself.
Thanks for hosting us!