nature

Picture caption: close up of a Golden Orb Spider. You can clearly see the orb in the centre and the golden thread

Spiders get a lot of negative press everywhere. Recently, there have been a number of poems about spiders on WordPress and all of them paint spiders as scary creatures which do much harm to humans. I decided to write this post as a tribute to spiders which actually do a lot of good in this world. There are some venomous spiders, but these are in the minority. Thousands of spiders die at the hand of humans due to ignorance and unfounded fear.

The spider I am focusing on for this post is the South African Golden Orb Spider. From March to May, the Golden Orb Spider is an outstanding feature of the NorthWest province in South Africa. Hundreds of these large spiders can be seen everywhere, spinning and guarding their webs, and doing what spiders do which is catching and consuming prey, usually insects, and reproducing.

The female of this species is 1,000 times bigger than the male. The female spins the web and allows several males to cohabitat on the web. The males are usually found at the top of the web while the female sits at the hub, facing downwards, and waiting for insects to become trapped in the web. She then wraps the insect in web to immobilise it, kills it with one bite, and moves it to the centre of the web for immediate consumption or to store in her ‘larder’. I know you are thinking this is cruel but think about the contents of your own freezer. I often think that if the Martians from War of the Worlds arrived on Earth now, they would have had no conscience about eating people after peeping into the average freezer which is stuffed full of meat.

Continue reading here: https://writingtoberead.com/2025/08/27/in-touch-with-nature-golden-orb-spiders-spiders-southafrica-wildlife/

Merril asked poets to write a piece of prosery, no longer than 144 words, using a specified phrase from the poem “The Magnificent Frigatebird” by Ada Limón. I used the phrase as a heading for my piece. I wrote an initial piece and then I edited it down to achieve the 144-word requirement. I have included both pieces as the longer pieces includes a lot more details about one of my favourite birds, the ostrich. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/05/12/prosery-ada-limon/

“I have no skills for flight or wings
to skim the waves effortlessly, like the wind itself.”

This is the 144-word piece:

“Mama, why can’t we fly. We’re birds, aren’t we? All the other birds can fly.”

“Well, Little One, we are ostriches. We don’t need to fly. We have evolved to become flightless.”

“But Mama, I want to fly. I want to be the same as my friends. I don’t like being different.”

“You should be proud to be part of a species of bird that has adapted so well to its desert home. It’s more useful for us to have speed and endurance. We can sprint at over 70 kilometres an hour.

“And we do use our wings, we just don’t use them to fly.”

“I remember how you sheltered me and my siblings from the rain and the sun with your wings, Mama. Thank you for explaining. I feel much better now and I’m going to tell my friends how special I am.”

This is the longer and more detailed piece:

“Mama, why can’t we fly. We’re birds, aren’t we? All the other birds can fly, even my friend the kori bustard.”

“Well, Little One, we are ostriches. We no longer fly because we don’t need to. In the distant past we did fly but over time we have evolved to become flightless.”

“But Mama, I want to fly. I want to be the same as all my bird friends. They say I’m not a proper bird because I can’t fly and my wings are useless. It makes me sad.”

“Ostriches are proper birds, my son. You should be proud to be part of a species of bird that has adapted so well to its desert home. We don’t use our wings for flight because it was more advantageous for us to develop speed and endurance on the ground. You must remember that ostriches breed on the ground and we also take advantage of abundant ground-level food sources. Our main predators are hyenas and lions, so we need to be able to outrun them. And we can outrun them. We are the fastest runners of any bird or other two-legged creature in the world. Did you know that? We can sprint at over 70 kilometres an hour.

“And we do use our wings. We don’t use them to fly, that is true, but we use our wings for many useful purposes. Our wings reach a span of approximately 2 metres and we use them in mating displays, to protect our chicks, and to cover the skin of our upper legs and flanks to conserve heat when it’s cold. We also use our wings as rudders to help us change direction while running.”

Little One cuddles up to Mama. “I remember how you sheltered me and my siblings from the rain and the sun with your wings, Mama. You are right, your wings were very important to protect us. Thank you, Mama, for explaining. I feel much better now and I’m going to tell my friends how special I am.”