Small and insignificant
It's burrowed in the ground
covered with cool damp earth
It waits.
Water gives it life
to start it on the journey
Spreading out and searching
pushing through the soil
Reaching for the sun
to find the light above
that nourishes and helps it grow
Gaining strength.
Days turn into years
Every day it grows
Leaves and branches stretching out
Standing tall.
From a tiny seed, to the mighty tree
ever changing
Life
Hello Jessi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this and for focusing on an eco-poetic theme. The first thing I notice about the poem is its vertical, streamlined shape. The structure of the poem draws the reader’s eye down the page and your use of enjambment with lines like: “Water gives it life/ to start on the journey” (5-6) urges the reader to finish and experience the poem. The poem is 19 lines long which vary in length, and the poem is written in one long stanza.
One of the other attributes I notice about this poem is its sense of fluidity:
Days turn into years
Every day it grows
leaves and branches stretching out
Standing tall. (13-16).
The poem reads smoothly with good rhythm and soft consonance; there are softer letters or voiceless consonants like ‘s’ and voiced consonants like ‘z’ that create a rhythmic tone within the poem. As a result, your diction feels natural and easy to read. The tone also seems to mimic the evolving cycles of nature, where “Life” (19) slowly comes into existence, persists, and changes as it continues to grow. I think you really capture the experience of each moment that the speaker tends to: “Covered with cool damp earth/ It waits” (3-4). A sense of quiet is emulated at the beginning of the poem, where something within the earth waits patiently. The seed that waits is personified; it could very well be staying there or “put” there without choice, but the speaker chooses to identify it with some free-will and humanistic attributes, like the implication of patience. After this period of quiet waiting, the events in the poem seem to create more action and noise indicative of living, growing life. This is a neat choice in execution that I see within the poem.
The content of the poem and its structural attributes likes its visual verticality and the use of enjambment seem to be very harmonious and also similar to the way seedlings stay and appear dormant, only to rush into existence and burst through the top of the soil.
This poem is very thoughtful in the way it describes the happening of a growing seeds, so there is a unique representation of time in the way seeds grow throughout a diachronic span. I look forward to reading more ecopoetry from you—I liked this one :).
-Tara