Here is another amazing tree root that I found along the Mississippi that looks just like a Turtle. So this poem will become part of my Animated Still collection. Animated stills are poems where inanimate objects take on human, animal, or spirit forms, traits, or articles. They are derived from photographs I have taken, that have moved me to write a poem associated with it.

Turtles are frequently depicted in popular culture as easygoing, patient, and wise creatures. Due to their long lifespan, slow movement, sturdiness, and wrinkled appearance, they are an emblem of longevity and stability in many cultures around the world. They have an important role in mythologies, and are often implicated in creation myths regarding the origin of the Earth, which describe a large cosmic turtle holding the earth upon its shell. Some cultures describe islands as the back of a large turtle. Many Native American cultures tell a story related to the Great Flood, whereby a man with supernatural powers sends various creatures diving down to get some mud from the drowned earth, in order to form a new earth. Then he places the mud on a turtle's back to float and grow into earth as we now know it. Source: Wikipedia.

This poem is a Englyn Unodle.
An Englyn Unodle is a Welsh poetic format. It is comprised of two seven syllable lines, one of ten syllables, and one of six syllables. There is a common rhyme at the seventh syllable of the ten syllable line and last syllable of the six syllable line). The last syllable of the ten syllable line assonates or aliterates with the third syllable of six syllable line. There are two types. If the two seven syllables lines are on top, it's a Union (which I have here). If they are at the bottom of the stanza, then its a Crwca. Below I show an example where the Xs are just syllables and the letters show the rhyme. The first stanza is the Union layout, while the second is the Crwca. So the rhyme scheme of each stanza becomes:
a, a,(a,b),(b,a) for the Union, and (a,b),(b,a),a,a for the Crwca.
where the lines in parens represent the inline-endline rhyme structure. For example, below I show two stanza layouts.

Union Layout:
x x x x x x a
x x x x x x a
x x x x x x a x x b
x x b x x a

Crwca Layout:
x x x x x x a x x b
x x b x x a
x x x x x x a
x x x x x x a

This photograph was taken by the author himself on January 31, 2016.

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