Unit 3

Unit 3

Lecture

Writing “outward looking” poetry,

a continuation of Unit 2.

About the Content of Nature Poems

A strong sense of place, or landscape is necessary for nature poems. After all you’re painting a landscape with words. The poems are considered “outward looking” because they are landscape centered not poet centered. Details are chosen that take the reader to the place the poet sees in his or her mind, much like a photograph does.

It really doesn’t matter where it is; it can even be another planet as long as the specific details make it real for the reader. Practice this mentally for a moment – I’ll list some words for you to read one at a time. After reading each word, make a list of landscape words that come to mind:

the beach
the Texas beach
a country road in west Texas
a peach orchard
a melon field
a forest
mountains
a city street

The “nature” poem can have the following characteristics:

a strong sense of place, or landscape

i.e. specific place names, terms associated with a regional – like specific animal, plant and tree names, streets, city, state names, elements of time or weather – any words that help ground the reader.

The above characteristics are suggestions for your poem’s editing process. After you’ve drafted your poem for this unit you’ll want to go back through to see if the poem fulfills the expectations of the assignment. This is part of the editing process.

Notice that both of the example poems have a strong sense of observation; they are both considered “outward looking.”

Let’s look at the first poem. Explication will follow.

by Dorothy Barnett

“Where You’re From”

If you live long

enough in one place,

you’ll learn the lay of the land:

know how far it is

to the Henly cut off, 5

that the best pie for miles

can be bought at the bowling 7

alley in Blanco, know the woman 8

called Grace who stood in her frontyard

and watched as her only daughter

was killed crossing the highway, 11

remember the red everywhere,

you’ll know that the pinpoints of light 13

in the dark hills across the valley 14

belong to the Miller place, 15

know where your friend Marla

wanted to live one summer

several boyfriends ago,

know the trickle of the Comal, 19

the Blanco, the Pedernales, 20

the Guadalupe, 21

wet mantras that measure

how far you’ve been, you’ll know

which stars guide you home.

Explication:

The words, lines, and phrases marked in red are the specific place/landscape details that give the poem a sense of place – the place names of Henly and Blanco and river names of Comal, Blanco, Pedernales, Guadalupe are specific to the Central Texas region.

Another example poem – this one is by Pattiann Rodgers. Explication will follow.

“The Significance of Location”

The cat has the chance to make the sunlight 1

beautiful, to stop it and turn it immediately

into black fur and motion, to take it 3

as shifting branch, and brown feather 4

into the back of the brain forever.

The cardinal has flown the sun in red 6

through the oak forest to the lawn. 7

The finch has caught it in yellow 8

and taken it among the thorns. By the spider 9

it has been bound tightly and tied

in an eight-stringed knot. 11

The sun has been intercepted in its one

basic state and changed to a million varieties

of green stick and tassel. It has been broken 14

into pieces by glass rings, by mist 15

over the river. Its heat 16

has been given the board fence for body, 17

the desert rock for fact. On winter hills 18

it has been laid down in white like a martyr. 19

This afternoon we could spread gold scarves 20

clear across the field and say in truth,

“Sun you are silk.” 22

Imagine the sun totally isolated, 23

its brightness shot in continuous streaks straight out

into the black, never arrested, 25

never once being made light.

Someone should take note

of how the earth has saved the sun from oblivion. 28

Explication:

This poem is a little different from the previous one because the subject, the sun or the rays of the sun, do not have to be set in a specific landscape because the sun is everywhere. The poem is very grounded in nature though; almost every line has a reference to a plant, animal, color, or landscape term. These are highlighted in red.

Listen to what it means to write outside.
Listen to "Horse Latitudes"
Explication of "Horse Latitudes"

Listen to "Children’s War"
Explication of "Children's War"

Links to other poems that connect to nature or have a strong sense of place in the student literary journal:

The Rio Review – Spring 1998

Nature

Memory by Jennifer Adair

Cottage by Heather Crippen

Raspberry Wish by Heather Crippen

Ansel Adams Is Not for Me by Frank Cronin

Wet Dirt, Changing Wind by Christina Galindo

Worm Tracks by Judith Glenn

The Salmon by Rich Perin