Ranger12 May 2006

If you're conveying mood in this, do it with solid images - maybe the curve of the porpoises being like a smile, or something similar. The beauty of this piece is that it's one of those 'show' poems, rather than a 'tell' poem, and that always earns bonus points.
R.E. using 'the' - specificity works well here, it's just when reading aloud the repetition is very noticeable and so draws attention away from the rest of the piece. You can replace 'the' with, maybe, and adjective and still retain the directness in my view. However, it'd be worth seeing how other people read this; they might say the complete opposite to me.