Turtles Hatching

In Mark O'Connor's 'Reef Poems' he used the power of imagery to share us the complexity of nature on our planet and the biodiversity that is evident in our natural environments. O'Connor is clearly fascinated with natural environments, very many of the poems in his Reef Poem collection are on human subjects. His poetic personality is his objectivity, his willingness to feel and care about the world outside himself. The compassion he shows for other creatures is fascinating in that at the same time he is reluctant to misrepresent them by humanising them.

The 'Pairing of Terns' is a far bolder than any of the other poems by Mark O'Connor and is far less inhibited in attributing to the terns something analogous (thesaurus) to the ecstatic emotions of human love. Mark O'Connor proves that humans can match the birds imagination, the emotions of first love in humans may make us feel as if we're 'flying', although the fact is we can literally not do so. The terns express how human love remains a pale imitation of the extreme freedom throughout their freedom flight. In the first stanza, the poet announces the theme 'human lovers only know it in dreams' the extraordinary plight of the terns who are described as 'riding the weird and unguessable surf of the air', in which the air is weird and you cannot see the pattern of it. This gives the air and surf human qualities of the terns being able to pick which wave to take. O'Connor gives the reader an idea that the terns are feeling at home, gliding through the air as they ride the movements effortlessly, being blown in all directions 'round the compass' as they are 'locked in pairs by invisible steel', this metaphor gives a visual image to the reader as they would imagine the two terns being attached to each other by a piece of steel, that is invisible and this quote also gives a reference to the way in which they synchronise their movements.

In 'Turtle's Hatching', Mark O'Connor closely observes turtles hatching and contemplates the ritual that the turtles share with the beach. The poem has connotations to lifecycles and families, and tells a more straightforward story that is based on the poet's own experiences on the Barrier Reef islands. It depicts the complexity of nature and the way in which every species produces far more offspring than could possibly survive without