In my freshman seminar class, Shaping the Shadow, we’re currently reading Mary Oliver’s collection of nature poems called American Primitive. We’re also writing our own poems about nature by selecting an image from the natural world and presenting it in a poem that brings the image from strange to familiar. I thought I’d share what I wrote for the assignment. (I’ve never been a fan of sharing my writing, so this is a big step!) Enjoy (:
“Roots”
I like to think
that all trees know each other.
To us they are strange, strong, and silent,
never breathing, always alive.
They speak in whispers
wind through trembling, shimmering leaves
a language so foreign
even the song birds cannot translate.
But beneath the earth,
their roots tangle and twist
deep into the soft, sweet soil,
meeting among the drowsy pillbugs
and effervescent ants
to breathe and braid and bind in the dark
like children clad in moss and mist,
holding hands
behind the backs of the oblivious.