We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

23.4.21

A Nature Poem

 A Nature Poem


You expect, perhaps, 

a paean to trees,

an effusion on the beauty 

of hills and rivers,

or a towering 

ode to mountains?


But, floating all over

the internet lately 

is the reminder: we too

are part of nature –

and I wonder, what is

my natural self?


If you’ve never known

who you really are,

for all the other people

talking in your head –

parents, teachers, Society –

can you be true to yourself?


‘Know thyself’ said God

to the ancient Greeks. 

I always thought that advice

was Biblical, for the Hebrews. 

But no, it came from 

beautiful Apollo. 


Golden Apollo

who embodied the sun,

master of music

and poetry. Or did it come 

from Socrates, 

most rational of men?


At this point I realise:

all these tangents

and speculations

exemplify human nature.

We are in our heads, far

from the other creatures.


So it’s unlikely

we’ll save them,

or even ourselves,

from what our brains

have wrought. Would I 

have done better after all


to write in praise

of seas and mountains,

trees and rivers, hills?

But if you need a poem

to point out beauty,

are we not already lost?




The title is the 22nd prompt from Poetic Asides for April 2021.


I'm sharing this, six months later, at Friday Writings #4 for Poets and Storytellers United, where Magaly invites us to explore 'Pain in Ink' or to choose our own topic. This probably counts as unprompted, although it does record a type of existential pain.  






25 comments:

  1. Yes, Rosemary, how do we know what we really are? Good thought question. If we are not down on ourselves we might be what we think we are. If we constantly get flattering tales of what we are, pretty well go with that. I prefer the latter as I get remarks that I don't look.as old and don't seem as old as I am, 88. Also good remarks about my intelligent. I may write about that here, sort of like you did here. Best hurry as I will die before I finish as much as I'd like. :)
    ..

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    Replies
    1. Ha ha, I also enjoy being told I don't look 83. (And enjoy being able to tell myself I am a mere babe compared with you! xx) It is also very good to have retained our intelligence, yes.

      I think there must one thing even worse than not finishing all the things one wants to do before dying – and that would be, having nothing left to do and suffering a bland, empty, boring old age.

      Delete
  2. But if you need a poem
    to point out beauty,
    are we not already lost?... best line I've read all week! Love what you've done here!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Holy mess, girl. This is incredible:

    “Would I
    have done better after all

    to write in praise
    of seas and mountains,
    trees and rivers, hills?
    But if you need a poem
    to point out beauty,
    are we not already lost?”

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm thankful for the poems that point out beauty. If they didn't exist, I think many more people would be lost. Sometimes the lost just need something to jolt them out of their lostness, and often poetry does the trick.

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    Replies
    1. Truth to tell, I am too. (Love yours, for instance.) But the above sentiment was true too, in the moment of writing.

      Delete
  5. I love this poem and completely agree with Rajani. This is a truly sad poem in a way, but also kind of intriguing.

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  6. My understanding of the mood of this piem is the extension of self into wonder and knowing more

    Have a good weekend Rosemary

    Much💛love

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Something like that, I guess.

      Thank you and same to you.

      Delete
  7. Looking at the title, i was expecting an ode to trees and flowers, hills and rivers.
    but it is a harsh reminder that we too are a part of nature, that we are the most complex of living things, with intelligence and guile and emotions. Truly a post that makes us ponder.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "But if you need a poem
    to point out beauty,
    are we not already lost?" - I agree with Rajani on these words.

    As many among us are blind, is it not in our service to reveal that beauty?
    I consider myself more dense than blind and need all the help I can get.
    I process a self-reflection almost daily to keep me honest, this assisted me for today.

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    Replies
    1. Good point! And I'm honoured to have assisted in your reflections.

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  9. That last line is haunting. I hope there are more of us aware of beauty than not. Those of us aware of it are more likely to fight harder to preserve it.

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  10. That is a perfect ending, Rosemary. And I think the answer is, very much so. I also think that we can't really know the mountain or the river or the other beasts that roam the earth if we don't know ourselves. I wonder if it is the reason behind so much human-caused devastation, that some of us are too lost to understand that we are nature.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it depends on upbringing. I was blessed to have parents and extended family who were conservationists long before we even had that word, so I absorbed those attitudes. Sadly, very few people around us seemed to share this viewpoint.

      Delete
  11. I don't think most people know who they really are. I may be slightly more connected with who I really am now that I no longer live in the city and am no longer killing myself working 60-hour weeks, but I can honestly say that I haven't known who I am for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You may well be right. But I sometimes suspect that very few people even stop to wonder who they are.

      Delete
  12. Profound are the three closing lines. A brilliant reflective poem.

    ReplyDelete
  13. A nature poem that isn't about trees or mountains, but human nature. And how much of what we do is natural and how much is imposed by our specific set of beliefs, wants, or desires.

    ReplyDelete

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