Salmon Poems        

Poems by Clayton Gillette's class at Griffin Creek Elementary School  

by Kayleigh McKey
Against racing currents and through troubles I go,
Through turbines and dams and weather of blistering cold.
I’m speeding in the morning as the the meadowlarks tweet,
By evening I’m exhausted; I’m just dead beat.
But I cannot stop now, there’s trouble ahead,
Nor can I sleep now, nor rest in my redd.
I’ve now come to the ocean, eating all I can,
I can’t move a muscle- “Taxi, taxi- well at least a van!”

by Riley Dillard
Two years in the ocean
Kept them well fed,
Now head home in motion,
To spawn without wed.
Downstream was easy,
Upstream not so,
Females fill up their redds
And then they’re all dead.
Now I’ve finished my rhyme
About salmon so fine.

by Alexis Green
I went to the river to see a fish.
I couldn’t believe how marvelous it is.
It came up the stream and what did I see?
A big redd nest alongside of me.
And then a big carcass floated by in the stream,
I was frightened and scared and I wanted to scream.

Salmon by Genna Tutland
My belly is full,
And I feel very strong.
But the stream ahead
Looks really quite long.
I’m almost back home
With the battle won,
And now I am here,
Joy to everyone.

by Hannah Smith
Rough and tough, up we go,
Jumping dams and going slow.
I feel very strong,
Though the journey is long.
We’re wary of you
As we pair up in twos,
To mate and dig redds,
Soon to be dead.

by Mercedes Finnicum
It makes me shiver when I think of a river.
Where the salmon spawn (Not on my lawn!)
They’re orangey eggs are like yo-yos,
Swimming, they don’t jump on pogos.

by Sammy Shipley
I went to the river to see the fish.
I did not know that it was your wish.
They laid their eggs there in the redd,
Then I saw them being dead.
They gave their bodies for their young
There beneath the setting sun.

by Maddy Evans
Salmon, salmon, salmon, are the best!
Salmon, salmon, salmon, above the rest!
They started out as eggs,
They’re up to our days.
They’re swimming upstream
Coming back to me.

by Chance Hoque
I saw a redd, it wasn’t red.
No eggs were dead there in the redd.

by Cecilia Huizar
It’s time to go up the river to eat and feast.
Though I have enemies, I’ve some friends at least.
Swimming out to the open sea and running away when the sharks lure.
Yet we’ll be so happy on our grand adventure.
Going back home to lay spherical eggs,
That’s the end of this poem, because we have no legs.

by Jake Sager
A redd is not red, and a steelhead’s not a salmon.
But a stream is a stream and each and every
Little salmon does the same thing.

by Miles Moran
A long, long way up the river they go.
A bear or falcon might hold them at bay.
Their minds are set; they will not go slow,
And they finally arrive at their nesting spot.
(But a few will worry that the river’s too hot!)
After three months the eggs will hatch,
And the cycle once more starts all over again.
At last the epic journey of salmon subsides.

by Rachel Diaz
I watch the water flowing by.
The bad thing is I’m still a fry.
My tail is tough, strong and lean,
The river is turning aqua green.

by Trevor Stevens
I was working hard to get upstream,
I got so mad I started to scream.
I came back to spawn,
The river slowed down.
And then I was gone.
I’d met a lady,
Her name was Sadie,
We laid some eggs
Then I died.
I thought I’d live forever.

by Ben Hutson
Two fish spawned and laid their eggs in a redd.
But in a few days, they will both be dead.

by Brandon Saunders
I went to the river to see some fish,
I also learned it was my wish
I knew I would, I knew I would
See one fish, two fish, silver fish, pink fish.
I learned that there are young and old,
Dead and alive, and they swim in fives,
And then they lose their lives.

by Nic Erickson
I went to the river to see the fish spawn.
Sac-fries come from the redd, and then they are gone.
Dead fish are food laying there in the water.
Food for bugs and environment, not something we slaughter.

by Olivia Steir
I went to the beach
To see the fish.
How do they know
My mother’s wish?
They laid their eggs
Up there in their redd,
Then they died,
Their habitat fed.