A Near Summer Day

Today we will be writing nature poems. Use Mary Oliver's "The Summer Day" as a model.
(Homework is to read chapter 2 of The Bean Trees)



The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-- the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver, The House Light Beacon Press Boston, 1990.

Write your own nature poem today. Here's the process I'd like you to follow:
1. Either sit and look at the natural world or remember a time when you were in nature. 
2. Then write a list of ten very specific things that you see.
The best way to do this is to focus on something like Mary Oliver's grasshopper and write down details. These details will not be confined to the object you are focusing on but will include your surroundings.
2. Think in terms of how you perceive it and then write five images describing that place or thing 
(what you see, hear, smell, feel) Your descriptions of images might include wording similar to the following: "colorless and frail," "a watercolor painted peak," "like little devil horns"(simile) "behind hugging trees,"  (imagery; personification)"plastic imposter" (metaphor) "kids lightly, freely, innocently tossing the ball"  "on a morning like this, even the trash is beautiful"
5.(optional: Write your thoughts concerning at least one of these things)
6. Rewrite everything, making it a poem. 

Ripley's poem--An example of how to write the poem
1. Write a list of ten very specific things that you love about nature. Riplee's example is her camping spot

• 1. Camping spot on the Alcea river
• 2. Our cabin
• 3. Path to the edge of the water
• 4. Bright reflection of light off the water
• 5. Warm sun on my skin
• 6. Cold water
• 7. The rock where we dove in
• 8. The smooth texture of the rock
• 9. Laughter
• 10. The feeling of the water making my hair float in the water

2, 3 Describe five aspects of that place or thing 

• The camping spot lies next to the water's edge
•  there are tall trees, that give you 
• The trail of sand leads down to the babbling brook 
• The light is beautiful with blankets of shade and spots of sun
• The water is cold
• There is a rock with ridges and holes
• I dive in head first into the sparkling water
• the water makes my hair float in the water

5. Write your thoughts concerning at least one of the images
I feel free at the camping spot lies next to the water's edge

I'm at the height of pure bliss

I feel enclosed but free

Baking in the sun, you long for the cold water 

and give in to the desire.



6. Rewrite everything, making it a poem. 

We have a place on the Alce where your freedom is found, A place of pure bliss. A place with the tall trees, that give you blankets of shade and spots of sun. The trail of sand that leads down to the babbling brook and open rocks. Baking in the sun, you long for the cold water and give in to the desire. The awkward rock with ridges and holes, running out to jump, you meet the water, head first. Enclosed but free, looking up at the sparkling water, and wavy sun. For a second you wait at the height of pure bliss.

Examples of other nature poems
Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver reading her poem: Wild Geese
Text for Wild Geese