Special Entry #2

The State of Your Heart

The little girl in the poem State of the Planet
by Robert Hass symbolizes humanity’s “hunger”
and wonder for knowledge as shallowly translating
to image and wealth.
He starts the poem by describing
a young girl standing outside in the rain. She has a backpack
with a science book inside. “[She is] One of the six billion
of her hungry and curious kind.”(End of Line #1) He
goes on to say that the book is “dog-eared an full of
illustrations.” Seems like Robert is almost placing a
negative connotation on the book, or making the book
seem childish by comparing it with a children’s picture
book. “She’s one of those who’s only hungry
metaphorically.” (End Line #2)
We portray or “tell ourselves”
we want to learn and understand our planet, but in
fact while being in that pursuit we do not take the
appropriate and necessary steps to care for it. Making
our hunger out to be all in vain. He says the girl is only
hungry in the metaphorical comparison he makes, she is
not hungry for learning in un-metaphorical or
the natural way to hunger for learning or wonder.
He describes the book as “try[ing] to give the child
wonder.”(Top Line#4) Seems like he is saying we try to
find wonder, not for the pure fact of enjoying nature
and being inspired to love it and want it to always exist,
but for the drama. ‘ “all nature teams with life-”
Something of the earth beyond our human drama.’
He then so magnificently describes some of the beauties
of the planet. The deep tones of a volcano erupting,
Mexican country landscape, bright colored birds in a
tree finding food. “Some insect-eating bird with wing
feathers the color of a morning sky perched on the limb
of the tree. That blue, that green”(Top Middle Line #4)
He goes on to say that even the beautiful bird’s cannot
grasp the full weight of earth’s wonder and not only
their own beauty but their place in it. “Alertness of the
bird that can’t know the amazement of its being there,
a human that somewhat does,”(End Middle Line#4)
As soon as our eyes taste wonder or gain knowledge
our carnal nature starts planning ways to bottle it
up, package it in, and reconstruct it for marketing.
“It must be a gift that humans can’t sustain wonder.
We’d never have gotten up off our knees if we could.
But soon enough we’d have fashioned sexy little earrings
from the feathers, highlighted our cheekbones by the
rubbing from the rock, and made a spear from the sinewy
wood of the trees.” (Top Last Line #4) I believe he is talking
about the ever popular quote. “With great power, comes
great responsibility.” We have the power part down.
We are experts at gaining power, both physical and
mechanical. I think that is what he means when he
says “gotten up off our knees.” We saw a glimpse
of what the world could be like when we captured
the amazing wonder nature brings. We try to replicate
it. Then we went from women cleaning or scrubbing
the floor and men working the fields all on their knees
to driving around in air conditioned tractors and self-
cleaning shower kits.
It is the responsibility part that we forget about.
We have made our lives easier by inventing things to
save time and money. But where are the fruits of this?
If inventions were functioning in that manner we would have
enough time to all clean up the earth.
We pursue “knowledge” when we actually hunger
the underlying vanity. Wisdom brings fame and
fortune. Interviews, pictures, parties, grants, loans,
financial backing, and all in vain. Robert calls out the
icons of gods, knowledge, poetry, and painting.
Speaking to Epictetus he tells him that he was right in his
pursuit, but the ending turned out wrong. “Where
oxygen breeds it from ultra-violent light, it burns
a hole in the atmosphere.”(Bottom Line#8) I think it is
Robert’s way of pointing his finger in the “minds of
the times” faces and saying, yes figured out how
cells worked and you sold and copyrighted it, and
now look what it gets us. You create things that kill
the earth. He continues by saying, “They drained the
marshes of Rome. Your people, you know,
the ones who taught the world to love the vast fields
of grain, the power and the order of the green” “Your poets,
those in the generation after you, were the ones who praised
the packed seed heads” Robert says that “In the years since,
we’ve gotten even better at relentless simplification, but
its taken until out time for it to crowd out, savagely, the
rest of life”(Middle Line#9) He recognizes the vanity
in this. “And all one thing: there’s no life in it at all.”
(Bottom Line#9)He must view this idea of mistreating
the earth like a tragedy because he compares it subtly
with seducing and stealing the honor of a woman.
This interpretation gives us twofold meaning
for why the author paints such a beautiful
picture of the scenery of earth. It is likened to a
beautiful women dancing. “the women coming
towards you, is the appetite for life; the one who
seems to turn away is chaste restraint” “The dance
resembles wheeling constellastions”

“What is to be done with our species?”
(Top Line#10)
It is our planet. The author of this poem bids
us to come deeper, to fly higher, to want more out
of life, and not for just the planet’s sake, but for
our own as well. “Because the world needs a dream
of restoration- ”(Bottom Line#10)
I have come to understand that
he wants us to love our planet and not just pretend to.
“No use to rail against our curiosity
and greed”(Middle Line#9)

The Layers of Symbolism

The best way for me to assimilate symbolism
with text and literature is to go back to high school.
Right before the movie came out for Narina:
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, our entire
school read the accompanying book. I went to a
small private Christian school, which taught K5
to high school graduates. They kept about one
hundred students at a time. So K5 to high school
were either read to or required to read the book.
We were required to be exposed to a chapter or two
a week until finally all the classes were done and
it was game day. Yes. We had Narnia day. The
entire day was filled with games and activities all
focused around the book and the upcoming movie.
Then shortly after Narnia day we, as a whole school
together, went and saw Narnia in theatres.
This all seems fine except for one part. Narnia
is a story about an evil witch. We had an entire year
celebrating a witch book and movie, from the same school
that banned any Harry Potter paraphernalia at all. Harry
Potter were books and movies with story lines including
witches. Why was Narnia any different?
Our headmaster when on to explain a little lesson
called symbolism. We explained that Narnia was the classic
story of “good vs. evil”, with good prevailing. And that it
was not a story about “teaching witchcraft”, but defeating it
This, to me, is a form of symbolism. If you were
simply reading the text you would not read about God verses
the devil, but yet a young band of siblings and mythical creatures
fighting an evil ice witch. When you read about Aslan giving his
life so that Peter can live, you are not reading about Jesus
giving his life for mankind, these are symbols.
We come about to symbols by becoming abstract from
the text itself. For instance in the poem we read in class about
the onion, one of my partners said to me, “This poem has to
have more to it. Why would it get so serious? It has to be about
more than a simple onion.” That was a very good statement. It
was true. You arrive at symbols when you go past the natural,
and step in to the figurative, or the unconcrete.

Faithfulness

It is amazing how powerful literature has shown itself to be to
me this semester. It reminds me of when I was buying a car.
When you are in the “car buying mood” you notice cars more
than on a regular occasion. It is this same way with Literature.
I was touched this morning in chapel when they sang a song I
have never heard before. Yes, there is literature even in music and song,
and/ or music can spark your memory about a piece of literature.
I was meditating this morning when I was touched by the words in this song called
You Are Faithful by Jesus Culture. I posted the song on the blog so you could
experience this song for yourself. The song said this:

My hearts aches for you my God
My soul waits for you my God
I’ve come far to find you here
In this place will I draw near

And your spirit soars with me
To the highest heights
From where I’ll not look back
I’ll keep trusting you
For I know You are faithful My God

I was instantly reminded of the play that we have been reading in class
called Waiting For Godot and the silly inconsistencies that
the story consists of. When I read the play I was thinking how easy it is
for our lives to become filled with repetition and apathy.
We over-schedule, over work, under-sleep, and develop less
than healthy habits. Although when you get into a suitable schedule
how could not become a part of it? We work our entire lives in schools to
get to a place to work for the rest of our lives. This blog may seem like
negative but there is hope. He is hope. Writing this blog I can feel my spirit
getting excited; even my eyes are wanting to water at how great he is.
The song just reassured that no matter how I feel or what I do that my
God will always be faithful to me, especially in a completely
unstable and unfaithful world. He does not use useless repetitions
or toil about with inconsistencies or even fill your heart with false hope.
He is faithful. He is true. He is everything I could need.

I will leave you with this:
(This is also a sing they played this morning)

“Jesus you are all I need, you are more than enough for me”.

Repetition For Emphasis

Waiting For Godot, written by Samuel Bekett, has been a tougher read for me personally. Although, I should not say it has been a tougher read, per say, but tougher to grasp. Maybe I am just not quite trained enough on interpreting scripts. This is my analysis of Waiting For Godot. The book itself seems as if to be filled with many repeated phrases. For instance. the continual taking on and off of Estragon’s boots. Also the same phrases are repeated like, “like the leaves” and “circus”.
This story reminds me of a phrase my friends made up in middle school called “repetition for emphasis”. In the beginning of the story Vladimir is talking about the different accounts of the story of Jesus’ death and the two thieves beside him. He goes to explain his own question. Why are the stories different? There is an obvious allusion between the repetitiveness of the gospels and this play, as if by repeating the ideas will somehow make them more concrete. Lucky also mentions this when he says his consecutive pipes taste less “sweet” than the first.
There is also the underlying theme of stagnicity. The entire play Vladimir and Estragon talk about “leaving”, but they never do. Each following scene or curtain they remain in the same spot, talking about the same things, asking the same questions, and wanting to leave the same way. There is almost a sense of never leaving that spot, especially with such heavy emphasis on repetition. Maybe even a slight fear of change. These themes seem very weighty, if I may, when considering such a short play. It makes me want to examine my own life and contemplate my own inconsistencies and repetitions. Also it makes me want to root out the causes. Are my fears stemming from a resentment to change? Have I become apathetic to potentials that my life brings? But mainly I am faced with this question. Are my own repetitions for emphasis causing my traits to dull in the balance?

Lake Bonny Park

This is proof I went to Bonny Park Mr. Corrigan
I call it a photography literature blog ;)



























































Inspiration*

What inspiration nature brings.
And yet what silence and meditation
it demands. Being in nature today helped
me catch a tiny glimpse of God’s mighty
power and His amazingly creative hand.
Being in nature just makes me want to
write and create literature, in all the ways.
It makes me want to observe a plant and write
down the feel of the petals, and the origin or genus,
and the inner workings of the stem and photosynthesis.
Nature can be such a good starting point for literature.
It could be something as simple as the setting of nature
you are sitting around. For example, if you are sitting
inside on a rainy day you may be more inclined to write
about the mood of the rain. Or you may be lead to write
about the sound or smell of rain. If you are outside on a
beautiful sunny day you may write something more
optimistic or “happy”.
Also, everything originates in nature
so what better place to start for inspiration? For instance,
if you saw a tomato growing outside you may be
reminded of tomato soup and the warmth of your mother
making it for you when you were little at thanksgiving time.
Although nature could also be an intimidating place
to start with literature. You could be overwhelmed by
all the possibilities that come to mind when pondering on,
and considering nature.
Being in nature helps me realize the importance
of natural literature, in a sense. Nature is so beautifully made
but it manages to be simple and yet complicated and complex
at the same time. That is the kind of literature I enjoy. Easy
and simple, but not in an immature or simple-minded way, the
beautiful literature that comes naturally to you. The kind
of literature you can meditate on and sit still with. The literature
that you can become so overwhelmed with yet still feel comfortable
around. I love Literature that makes you feel complete in your
own vulnerability.

Nature

"Cowbird"

Crisp white you stand
Perfectly still
Marbled
Watching and waiting
Listening
You prowl
I watch
I wait
I listen
A calf cries nearby
The dancing of the trees
The whispering of the wind in my ear
Vulnerablility
The key to enjoying
Anything
Suddenly you move
A flash
Immediately back to position
Except for one swallow
I admire the discipline


Being in nature, to me, is such a
wonderful experience. I have enjoyed this
assignment better than any other. I was raised
in the country setting. A small south central
town in Florida. The last I heard our town human
to cow ratio was three cows to every one person.
I spent two hours outside in my nanny and poppy’s
pasture. They have about forty or fifty cows on
ninety acres of a heavily treed grass land.
My poppy (my grandpa) just harvested another
piece of property and he has a good sized
collection of hay bails now. I sat for
two hours in nature between two hay bails and
read poetry. It was one of the greatest experiences
I have ever had. I never realized how much I missed
being outside in the nature of my hometown
until I moved away to college. But the best part of
the experience was because I paired my love of nature
with reading poetry, something else I also leave.

“Of course I have always known you
are present in the clouds, and the
black oak I especially adore and the
wings of birds. But you are present
too in the body, listening to the body,
teaching it to live, instead of all
that touching, with disembodied joy.”
(Six Recognitions of the Lord, Mary Oliver, Line 4)

This line was most evident in my experience
or natural literature. I think Mary has a very valid point.
I think that what she could have been talking about
here was the fact that God is everywhere in everything,
working on our behalf. He could be ministering to your
emotional health by therapeutically causing a bird to
sing a beautiful song next to you. I think he especially
works in nature. Although the earth and all its beauty is
but a mere finger painting to what beauty God can create.
Look at the beauty of the universe. God ministers through
His whole body. His church body ministers and so does His
actual body, the Holy Spirit. Mary Encountered this and so did I.
God can minister in more ways than just feeling also. He
can move with sights, sounds, and any other avenue He chooses.