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)