Another way of looking at the poem is to say that each word is a piece of nature. The poem starts by saying, "lay down these words before your mind like rocks." and later says, "In the thin loam, each rock a word a creak-washed stone." It is comparing words in your mind to the different kind of rocks. Some of are beautiful, others dirty. What kinds of rocks fill your mind?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
What kind of rock are you?
In the poem Riprap I found a deliberate connection between thoughts and materials of nature. That every sense of nature can be compared to a feeling, an emotion, a visual form of being. Any "riprap of things" can represent some other form of life. It says that granite is "ingrained with torment of fire and weight." This rock exuberates a sense of pain and longing. At the end of the poem it talks about change in thought and how it can be linked to the change in nature.
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I feel we all have rocks filing our minds. Rocks that weigh us down like the "lost ponies with dragging saddles". In a busy society with things constantly on our minds, we carry these so called "rocks" with us wherever we go. There are times when the rocks can be so heavy, you feel as if you can't even get up and move. There are other times where we simply carry pebbles, or only grains of sand.
I thought about your question of what rocks fill my mind. I have a lot of rocks in my mind that keep me from really being present in life at times, as well as in the natural world around me. I am always thinking about what I have to do, and I feel that times when I can sit and throw my rocks into the water is when my mind and body are truly at peace and rest. Rocks can be things like financial obligations, academic responsibility, social responsibility, worry, anxiety, fear, love, pain, doubt and stress. But rocks sometimes are needed so we don't blow away either. I think to have a nice balance in live with your "rocks" is ideal. I wouldn't want only grains of sand nor would I want big boulders crushing down on my shoulders either. I don't mind a few rocks though, it makes life interesting.
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