The Starfish Poem

 Starfish poem - 

Once upon a time there was a wise man 

who used to go to the ocean 

to do his writing. 

He had a habit of walking 

on the beach 

before he began his work. 

One day he was walking along 

the shore. 

As he looked down the beach, 

he saw a human 

figure moving like a dancer. 

He smiled to himself to think 

of someone who would 

dance to the day. 

So he began to walk faster 

to catch up. 

As he got closer, he saw 

that it was a young man 

and the young man wasn't dancing, 

but instead he was reaching 

down to the shore, 

picking up something 

and very gently throwing it 

into the ocean. 

As he got closer he called out, 

"Good morning! What are you doing?" 

The young man paused, 

looked up and replied, 

"Throwing starfish in the ocean." 

"I guess I should have asked, 

why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?" 

"The sun is up and the tide is going out. 

And if I don't throw them in they'll die." 

"But, young man, don't you realize that 

there are miles and miles of beach 

and starfish all along it. 

You can't possibly make a difference!" 

The young man listened politely. 

Then bent down, picked up another starfish 

and threw it into the sea, 

past the breaking waves and said- 

"It made a difference for that one."

The main message behind this poem is that your input, even if it's small makes a difference. We need to help our ecosystem and all it takes is the courage of one person to put a small amount of effort into standing up and doing something about it and people follow their lead and start encouraging other people to the same. This is shown at the end of the poem when the man asks why he is bothering to make a difference (Throwing starfish back into the sea) when there is so much damage (Miles of starfish). He then explains to him that even the smallest amount of effort can make a difference by throwing a single starfish into the sea and saying "It made a difference for that one."