staff picks for invertebrates

hermit crab:…………………Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart
…………………………….…………this book will have you casting off
……………………………………….last year’s shell
……………………………………….sometimes you need to moult home
……………………………………….to find where you belong

sea urchin:…………………..Fifty Hats That Changed the World by Design Museum
……………………………………….a sunhat is a must in shallow waters
……………………………………….when you’re all round, punk-
……………………………………….spiked head –
……………………………………….and why make do with shards of shell
……………………………………….or faded bottle caps?
……………………………………….this book will inspire
……………………………………….your fashion awakening

acorn barnacle:…………..Ovid’s Metamorphoses –
……………………………………….what else to recommend
……………………………………….for the bearer of the world’s
……………………………………….longest penis?
……………………………………….when you feel stuck
……………………………………….inside your calcium fortress
……………………………………….this book will remind you
……………………………………….how much there is inside you
……………………………………….to unfurl
……………………………………….how much you can transform
……………………………………….yourself for love

oyster:…………………………The Creative Act by Rick Ruben
……………………………………….Rick understands this essential
……………………………………….truth about pearls
……………………………………….and poetry:
……………………………………….what we create will coalesce
……………………………………….around the things we need to heal,
……………………………………….or conceal

nudibranch:…………………The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
……………………………………….not that you need the reassurance –
……………………………………….you gave up on shells long ago
……………………………………….and rarely give a hoot
……………………………………….about camouflage,
……………………………………….you living flame of unconditional colour
……………………………………….wandering the waters,
……………………………………….but I think you’ll enjoy
……………………………………….Mark’s down-to-reef approach

sea star:……………………….If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson
……………………………………….you, who can recreate
……………………………………….yourself from a single limb
……………………………………….will appreciate the tenacity
……………………………………….of these words
……………………………………….ripped up
……………………………………….then resurrected
……………………………………….fragment by fragment
……………………………………….from the garbage dump
……………………………………….and still, 2500 years later
……………………………………….alive

giant pacific octopus: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson
……………………………………….we’ve never met
……………………………………….unless you count my passing acquaintance
……………………………………….with disembodied flotsam,
……………………………………….a deflated tentacle or two
……………………………………….on the beach;
……………………………………….but I think you’d like
……………………………………….Emily – how she retreated to her den
……………………………………….and doled out words,
……………………………………….each poem’s coiled complexity
……………………………………….delicious as a prawn’s tail