I love the colors of the blue claw crab (callinectes sapidus) and couldn’t resist photographing a blue-claw sticker on the back of car in a parking lot.
Thinking that a picture of a sticker was not enough for a blog post, I went hunting for poems on blue claw crabs. I found a couple really awful ones, and I do wish one of my poet readers would write one that I might share.
Here is a poem on a generic crab that is cute.
Jim Clark, Poetry Reincarnations, copyrighted the little animation. He explains it on YouTube.
I also discovered that Richmond Lattimore (my Greek professor back in the day) wrote a short poem called “The Crabs.” Judging from a Google search, “The Crabs” is popular with the makers of standardized tests, probably because it is compact and lends itself to “deep thoughts.”
Finally, this site covers resources related to blue claws, opining that the book Beautiful Swimmers is a “must read for any crab aficionado.”
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I read Beautiful Swimmers when it came out and learned a lot about the life of the watermen on the Eastern Shore, a place that I had visited as a sailboat owner, but not known in any depth. I also learned that the title was a translation of callinectes sapidus, well, callinectes, anyway. Sapidus means tasty or savory, so they’re yummy beautiful swimmers, and I do love them.
When we lived in Colorado I had to get over the attitude that only crab from Maryland would do for my discerning palate. Fresh packed crab hardly appeared in the Rockies, and if it did, the cost was terrifying. So I settled for Phillips, which is widely distributed and quite sapid, though it comes from the orient.
Renee, my rusty Greek got me as far as “calli” meaning beautiful, but I couldn’t find “nectes.” Thanks for filling the blank. I should have put the
Greek/Latin name together with the book title. … I know that Maryland thinks of this crab as its own, but I associate it with my childhood on Fire Island, further north. … Thanks for checking in.
I love the YouTube video–what a riot!
I think I owe you a penny ^_^
You would have owed me a penny if I had written “Caractacus the Crab,” but I didn’t. 🙂