Our Snail
Here at The Tyas Foundation we have a mascot………. Angular Snail.
Below is a poem written by one of our trustees that sums up the ethos of the foundation.
It explains how being different from the norm isn’t necessarily a bad thing: having belief in yourself is the most important thing and not caring what others say is crucial to your happiness!
We hope you enjoy the poem and see the relevance it has to our setup:
Angular Snail was a sight to see
He was certainly not of the norm
His tangerine shell was not smooth and round
But took an angular form
Life gets you down if your shell isn’t round
And the colour of carrot soup
He was driven to tears by his spherical peers
And never felt part of the group
His life had been rough, he’d had quite enough
He was sick of remarks cruel and sly
So he looked at his map and turned his back
Didn’t bother to say his goodbyes
“I don’t really know just where I will go
But I must get away from here”
He could never have guessed that during his quest
He’d find a world quite so queer
Revelations unfurled as he travelled the world
With no particular plan
While on his tour he found things most obscure
In nature and those built by man
Pisa’s tower, though leaning, did not feel this demeaning
Was like nothing he’d seen before
Though it was cock-eyed it stood tall with pride
Attracting tourists galore
Crossing the span of the hills of Japan
He paused for a bit of a gander
He let out a scream when out from the stream stepped
A bright orange salamander
“You’re strangely bright and you’re smiling despite
The luminous way you shine”
“Well I’m not ashamed I’m the colour of flames,
It’s all part of my design”
He found too that Giza, while different from Pisa
Had also failed to conform
The pyramids great seemed to dominate
The sky with their ludicrous form
He stood back in awe “I’m not really sure
You were made with this intent?
But there you stand on the desert sand
No apparent accident”
In a Spanish back street he happened to meet
A snake with not one head but three
“Nature makes mistakes, but three headed snakes?
You’re definitely weirder than me!
“I’ve been so deluded” the snail concluded
“But now I’ve seen nature’s display
I’ve made up my mind “normal” can’t be defined
From now I wont hide away”
When he got back to town the snails gathered round
His appearance had caused quite a fuss
Addressing the crowd in a voice bold and proud
He said “we have much to discuss!
“One could say it’s a shame that you all look the same
With bodies shaped like balloons
I’d have no shell at all than one shaped like a ball,
A marble, a coin or the moon”
“With your shells a grey colour, you couldn’t be duller
One could say that your shape is mundane
There is nothing unique in your rounded physique
I would rather be orange than plain
As Angular Snail had begun to age
His skin grew droopy and slack
His shell once tangerine, turned a shade of baked bean
He had aches in his polygonal back
Despite the decline of his youthful shine
This is a great story to tell
He doesn’t care for people who stare
He is proud of the shape of his shell
copyright owed by Emily Clay
Please note this is not to be copied / distributed / sold or published without prior permission from The Tyas Foundation.
