Nature poetry

I can honestly say that class on Tuesday gave me a new appreciation for poetry. Now, of course this doesn’t mean that I understand even half of the poetry that I read, but I can read through it and do the best that I can in interpreting it without detesting it now. I didn’t realize that the Bible has a lot of poetry in it. I think that is because I feel differently about the Bible, and when I don’t understand something I talk to others about it. Poetry however, has never been on my list of things to discuss.

Upon reading our nature poem again, I felt that I could relate to the story a little easier having seen all the visual aids in class on Tuesday. Like Jessica said, it made the story more vibrant and colorful. I really like the imagery and wording in the very first paragraph, and the ones towards the very end.

“Rain lashing the windshield.”

For me, simply the word lashing, makes me view this image in a completely different way then had they used the word hitting, for instance. It makes it so much more vivid, I think. I really like that about a writer. Keeps things interesting. Also, I like how the author actually tells the story. He begins with describing the girl, and then he says that she has this book in her book bag which talks about nature. So then he goes on to tell different things about what that book will tell her about our world and the things in it.

Then when he ends the story, he goes back to the imagery of the girl walking across the street and the crazy rain. I really like this quote:

“What is to be done with our species? Because

We know we’re going to die, to be submitted

To that tingling dance of atoms once again,

It’s easy for us to feel that our lives are a dream-

As this is, in a way, a dream: …”

Then it goes on to talk about bodies being in heaps and such, but I don’t like that as much. However, I think it’s interesting when he says “tingling dance of atoms”. What exactly does that mean? And if we’re doing it “once again” then we must have already done it at least once before, right?

And then what does it mean that “As this is, in a way, a dream:”? How are our lives a dream? Even though I don’t fully understand it, I like it. Maybe I like it because of the way it sounds, or maybe I like it because it makes me think. Either way, all I know is that I like that quote.