'My Rhynchosaur' and the Lower Otter Valley Restoration Project (LORP)

The photo shows the model of a rhynchosaur, made by Budleigh-based designer Neil Rogers and displayed in Fairlynch Museum

Yesterday I went to my first meeting of a local poet’s group in Budleigh Library. I read my poem ‘Dear Rhynchosaur’ about this strange Triassic reptile which lived about 235 million years ago. Its bones were found near the east bank of the River Otter in the 19th century.

The creature helped me to realise that, whether LORP is a success or not, the project occupies, relatively speaking, only a few seconds of our local history. But here’s my poem:

Dear Rhynchosaur, inside your case,

You have a really funny face.

Your beady eye and parrot’s beak,

As creatures go, are quite unique.

In ancient times, it seems, your paws

Walked upon Budleigh’s streets with claws

Like those of really savage brutes.

Yet all you ate were simply roots.

I wonder, does your lizard’s tail

Mean that you were an adult male?

The pattern on your scaly back

Could camouflage against attack.

Your bones, which came from near High Peak,

Are truly rare and most antique.

Resplendent on your sandy base,

Dear Rhynchosaur, I think you’re ace.