Special Post #2- "Walking Home from Oak-Head"

1.

The piece that I chose to write about was Mary Oliver’s “Walking Home from Oak-Head.” Her poetry is beautiful and this work is especially striking with its vivid imagery, to bring “the snow-laden sky in winter” to life. The title, “Walking Home from Oak-Head” reveals what this poem is about. Oliver paints a picture of a person traveling on foot through the snow. This character is not in a hurry to arrive home, but rather, she takes time to stand still in the peace of the woods, to let the snow fall around herself and enjoy “the lovely meaninglessness of time.” Eventually, after reflecting and walking, the traveler comes to her destination and vigorously  stamps her boots, as the residue of the snowflakes is still on her shoulders.

2.

This poem by Mary Oliver needs to be interpreted because there is more to glean from this work than is evident with the first read. “Walking Home from Oak-Head” has more behind it than just a beautiful description and reflection of one walking home in the picturesque winter snow. Mary Oliver believes that poetry is “a spiritual practice” and she is quoted saying that “Poetry is prayer.” I agree with her thoughts and a spiritual side to this piece of literature is evident as we take a closer look at Oliver’s writing.

3.

Beyond the idea that Oliver presents of a simple walk home through the snow, there is an underlying spiritual theme throughout the poem. There is a reference to “home” as her ultimate destination. This “home,” or end of the journey, could be seen as Heaven from a spiritual perspective. The completion of our earthly existence then brings us to Heaven. 

The someone that “loves [her] there,” could be interpreted to be Jesus. Truly, He is waiting for His children to arrive and deeply loves them as well. Since some are not there yet, but rather here on earth, they “stand in the same dark peace as any pine tree.” Those on planet Earth can experience the peace of God though there is darkness all around. The pine trees, then, could represent the people that are with us along the journey. 

Other spiritual references could include the wind representing the Holy Spirit, and the “I” representing Jesus as the One in whom we live and have our being. Lastly, part of Oliver’s poem mentions how the earth is faithful to continue. This is an example to us of how we also need to be faithful and persevere in our walk with the Lord.

4.

Now that I’ve given some possible interpretations, there is evidence that support these views. The first spiritual theme is “home” alluding to Heaven. The words, “Whenever I get home---whenever...” reminds us that we do not know the time that we are going home. The Lord may come back for us, or we may all live full, long lives. The line “Sooner or later I’ll be home” also reflects this thought. In addition, the portion that reads, “I’ll stand in the doorway... my shoulders covered with stars” is a key part. Choosing the word “stars” over other possibilities leans more towards the thought that “home” is referring to Heaven.

A piece to verify that the “somebody” could represent Jesus, is that if “home” is still considered Heaven, then Jesus is there right now in Heaven, at “home.” He is waiting for us in Heaven to arrive, and He does love us. Another possible reference to Jesus could be the “I” in the poem, according to these lines: “Wherever else I live--- in music, in words, in the fires of the heart, I abide just as deeply in this nameless, indivisible place, this world...” Jesus is everywhere. He is omnipresent and He is in everything: in all that we do and in all that we are. He abides in this world, in our hearts and is enthroned through the words we say or the songs we sing.

Next, the woman walking this journey personifies the pine trees in Oliver’s poem as she is standing there along with them, like she is one of the pine trees, as well. Oliver indicates this idea as she writes that “Meanwhile I stand in the same dark peace as any pine tree.” She is like a pine tree, just waiting there in the woods and being still in the dark peace.

There are also lines that testify to the wind symbolizing the Holy Spirit. Such as, “Or wander on slowly like the still unhurried wind.” The Holy Spirit’s presence is around us all the time: omnipresence. We should make sure that we don’t rush our time with the Holy Spirit, but let the moment be meaningful, so we don’t miss what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. But when we do not have the relationship with God, we cannot utilize the power that He has for us. The power is around us, but we cannot engage it without a personal infilling of the Spirit. Yet, when we choose to link with God, He wields the power in us to affect others, and we give the glory to God. We receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us. Then we are given gifts of the Holy Spirit to also use to show God’s power. Other lines with evidence of the Holy Spirit include: “Waiting, as for a gift, for the snow to begin which it does at first casually, then, irrepressibly.” Like in the New Testament, in Acts two, the Holy Spirit came “as of a mighty rushing wind” and as those in the upper room were filled, they were not able to contain themselves but began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled them. The Holy Spirit can be irrepressible, uncontrollable and unrestrained when we operate in Him and work together to glorify God.

Finally, the last piece of evidence supports the idea of a faithful earth, and is found toward the end of the poem: “This world... which is faithful beyond all our expressions of faith, our deepest prayers.” This line clearly states that the world is faithful more than we are, and the prayer within our hearts is to be faithful as well. Although the earth is “falling apart now,” our world continues to turn upon its axis and revolve around the sun to give us our days and nights. The earth has continued to be dependable to present the seasons and our normal days. We need to pray that we can be devoted and faithful in our relationship with God. Everyday, we should grow through spending time with the Lord to develop more faithfulness in our lives.

5.

As we take Mary Oliver’s poem and read it, we receive different messages. First off, “Walking Home from Oak-Head” gives a delightful description of a winter walk through the woods and will bring images and memories to those who have personally experienced this journey. Secondly, we can gain insight of how our spiritual journey should look like. Jesus is waiting for us in Heaven, but He is also in everything that we are. Although we may be in the darkness of this world, the Lord will give us peace. We need to take time with the Holy Spirit and let Him work in big ways in our lives. And lastly, we need to remain faithful to God, like He remains faithful to us, by letting the earth continue as it has been for many years, as an example of  consistency in our lives. Others may have more interpretations, but I believe that Oliver subtly puts this spiritual aspect into the poem for us to discover, and from which we may learn. As we are existing on this earth till the Lord brings us home, we are called to live for Him and to serve others. We can be challenged by Oliver’s words in this poem to improve our relationship with the Lord and walk the journey presented before us.

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"I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost"

I can see why some readers find Flannery O'Connor offensive. She writes very frankly with her depictions of the characters and the characters' thoughts as well. Yet, I suppose it is "revealing their humanity" as characters, giving them a normalcy to relate to. O'Connor's southern qualities and devout Catholicism can clearly be seen throughout this whole story. These two things were prominent within her life and have given shape to this story as she presents it.

O'Connor is very blatant and pointed with her descriptions and it is easy to envision the characters. They don't really sound like, "pretty people." "Her fat cheeks and the braces she had in her mouth... He was an eighteen-year-old boy who weighed two hundred and fifty pounds...and he had a round sweaty chest..." She doesn't play up the characters at all, but gives us a good picture in our minds. I am not sure what to think of these raw descriptions, but I am taking them as is and using them to understand and picture this short story. I think they are okay as I take these descriptions in context. And along with the descriptions of people, the scenery she describes is clear to imagine as well. One of my favourite passages was as O'Connor paints the image of the beacon light "searching the air as if it were hunting for the lost sun." I imagined myself as I have looked and seen the beacon lights and this little moment just captured me to think of my own experience.

Throughout the story, the child was never given a name, even though this twelve-year-old is a main character. I think the child could have been representing Flannery O'Connor herself at a point in her life. Taking a look at Catholicism and questioning the importance of it. Or maybe this kind of "story" happened to O'Connor, or she felt like this at times. For example, she may have had annoying cousins or friends a little older than she and believed that she was smarter than all of them. Maybe she placed herself in this story as the child. Like the headnote said, as "an intellectual in a rural environment, she quickly began to see the world as sometimes annoying, but often amusing." I feel like I see this in "the child." For the most part, I think that writers write about what they know because it is something they are knowledgable or passionate about and I think this could be the case here.

The child had some interesting thoughts that we as the readers see. Some random and seemingly out of place, such as when she talks about the world war and imagining herself dying as a martyr. But a line that stuck out to me that goes along with the title was, "I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost, she said to herself, and was pleased with the phrase. It made her feel as if somebody had given her a present." I felt  that when she thought this, it gave her a sense of identity and security in who she was. She had a purpose and feels valued and important. It is just this child-like innocence that we are seeing. She likes this feeling, and maybe doesn't understand why, but is enjoying this moment of receiving this "present." And in turn, she begins to see others as "a Temple of the Holy Ghost too."
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Ursula LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

After I read this short story for the first time, I had to take a break before I came back to it. I walked away from it kind of baffled and unsure what to think of it. So then I came back and reread it again and again, and I still don't really understand what LeGuin is saying. "Given a description such as this one tends to make certain assumptions." After I read this, I thought, "I'm not even sure what to assume." I was pretty lost.

This could be way off, but it's the big picture of what I gleaned from this story. I feel like Omelas, and the people, and the child are all a representative of something. The first thing I thought of was that Omelas is a place of our own imagination, a perfect world that we would want to live in and make it however we desire. Like the line says, "As you like it." But as I read through it again, I thought that Omelas was representing America, and where the child was would be Africa. The child could be a representative of the starving children there. And we Americans, sometimes go on missions trips and other things to try and help them, but our impact is only on a small scale. Some are touched to where they just cry while others are more angry and frustrated with how they are forced to live, so cut off from the rest of the world in their own place. Yet others maybe feel called to reach these people. That is why they leave America. They may become missionaries and go to other countries to help those in need. In America, we are so blessed beyond belief. We want to keep our "happiness" and not sacrifice anything else to have the things that we want. But if we do go and see the "child" and we are touched, we feel guilty, but don't want to feel guilty for having all the things that we do have.

Also, there were many lines that I liked and didn't fully understand. Like this passage, "Their tears at the bitter injustice dry... the true source of the splendor of their lives... They know compassion." I think that part of this is saying that those who have seen the child in the room, they become aware that they do not have true freedom and don't take for granted the happiness they have. They have an understanding of the hurting and feel something inside that knows the injustice this child faces.

This thought provoking story has left me quite bewildered. Again, who knows if any of this is right, but it was my interpretation and what spoke to me when I read this piece.

As a last note, when LeGuin mentions that "each one goes alone," I think it could mean we all have to make our own personal decisions of what we are going to do and how we are going to live.
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Field Trip-Circle B Bar Reserve with Hass

I absolutely loved the field trip to Circle B Bar Reserve. I love field trips in general, but I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't completely sure what to expect, but the area was pretty big and so beautiful. It was another chance to slow down and let myself just become a part of nature. I was actually able to hear the creatures and their calls without even hearing the sounds of motors. There was this sense of silence, although it wasn't silent. Maybe it was more of a sense of peace, and things being as they should. It was amazing. All I heard was natural life. I saw an alligator, about two or three feet long, whom I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't stopped to pay attention. There was also this one kind of annoying bird who just kept squawking, and wouldn't quit. But as I thought about it, where else am I going to hear this? Is this creature's voice really going to be heard outside of this place?

Being told that this place was restored to what it was before, in the 1940s, I believe, it made me think about Hass' line that "the earth needs a dream of restoration." This is the example that we can follow; it can be done! Those dedicated to Circle B have brought it back to life. The marshes are back so the animals have come back as well. There is hope for restoration, things can be restored. It's not impossible for certain things and it will take time. As those at Circle B worked hard they were able to do something good for the environment. And we had the opportunity to enjoy it.

As we were talking about the statistics of where our environment is today, it broke my heart. Our world is in dire need of help. Like Professor Corrigan said, we do have an issue of consumption, and unfortunately, our world is paying the price. Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct more rapidly, we are losing topsoil and waste keeps piling up. I think one of the problems is that people are not even aware of the statistics. We know that our world is bad, and deforestation is terrible, but truly, these problems are affecting us, but not enough to where we become effective to do anything about it. We need a big wake up call so we can gather the support we need and restore our world because it is God's beautiful creation that He made for us to live in. His glory and wonder cannot be seen if we continue to ruin our world, but we can bring back the beauty He created for it to be seen and wondered at.
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"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

Well, the title of this piece really says it all. This short story is about an old man who has wings. He is a main character.

It was kind of random how this old guy just shows up but the people don't seem too mystified or respectful. They think they know about this "angel," but they don't. It's a strange little story of how this little town becomes a main attraction because of this supernatural creature showing up, and then his spotlight is taken by another strange creature that is new and fascinating.

I think that a theme of this story is about how we treat others, primarily when they are different from us. When this old man with big wings lands in a family's yard, the couple goes to the "wise neighbor woman" to get advice about the angel, and the woman says to club this "angel" to death (96). Now, to me, that doesn't seem to be the proper thing to do to anyone, angel or no angel. This neighbor didn't know the old man, but maybe she mentioned this suggestion because she was scared and didn't know what else to do and didn't know what the old man would do.
So the couple doesn't kill the man with wings. Instead, they lock this poor, dirty decrepit man into their chicken coop. Really? "Let's put the guest in the chicken coop." No, let's not. But then again, this was written quite a few years ago, and I assume it was written for that current time period. And the setting may be in Colombia, which is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's birth country. So maybe back in the day in Colombia it was acceptable. But I'm not too impressed or happy about it.
And then when the whole town found out, oh goodness! They were "having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence, tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren't a supernatural creature but a circus animal" (97). Then, after that, these people want to make the old man a "mayor of the world" or "promoted to the high rank of five-star general" or maybe he could "take charge of the universe" (97). The people treat the old man with wings like a circus animal and no respect, yet they want to place him in high authority. So they will exalt him without respect? The people want to assume they know everything, and I think this represents us. We try to explain the things that we don't completely understand because we want to know. We are curious and hungry for information. That is, interesting information.
The family that charges money to see the "angel," they are like all of us, greedy and wanting to be successful, so we make money off what we can, unconcerned with the method, like if people are exploited.
Then, a new attraction comes along, a girl who was turned into a spider the size of a ram. And when this new supernatural thing came along, the focus was on that. The angel wasn't a hot item anymore. Another creature replaced him. We, as people, do this a lot. We will go through different fashions and trends that people follow. We like mainstream music and popular TV shows. We always crave the next best thing to come along to fulfill the desires of want in our lives. It is kind of sad. Jesus isn't our focus, but new, cool things in this world are instead.

This matters to us because we need to learn how to respect others, especially those who are different from us. We need to treat them with kindness and respect, just like what we like to receive. If it's something "good" we place it on a pedestal. But if it's "bad" or we are unsure, we show disrespect and don't care as much.
We also maybe need to cut on the "latest-and-greatest" things so that we don't get caught up in that, but rather focus our attention on Jesus who deserves it.

As a side note, this was a part that I found intriguing. When the woman, Elisenda, watches the old man finally fly away, she was relieved that "he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea" (101). This "angel" had been used by this couple. He unintentionally helped them become rich, and the woman wasn't even grateful for the "help" he gave. She thought the old man was annoying.
This also could be a story of how we treat older people now. We don't show them the respect that they deserve. We try to squeeze everything out of them at as little inconvenience to us. We only want the benefit. And that is unfortunately how our society is changing today.

This short story could have many themes behind it, but those were my thoughts on Marquez's story.
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"State of the Planet"

I found Robert Hass' piece of poetry very interesting. It was story-like, talking about this little girl, then a one-sided conversation with Lucretius happens. He's not really talking to him, but rather talking to us, the readers of this poem.

In the beginning, I liked when Hass wrote, "Poetry should be able to comprehend the earth. / To set aside from time to time its natural idioms / Of ardor and revulsion..." (50). I think that Hass is trying to say that when we write poetry about the earth and its beauty, the poem should help us understand more in a clearer way than before. And the last part could mean that we don't always need some fancy language, but the description can be raw from whatever we think, not just being passionate or disgusted by our earth. We can put more into the poems to help others understand our point of view.

Another few lines that caught my attention were this: "It must be a gift of evolution that humans / Can't sustain wonder. We'd never have gotten up / From our knees if we could" (51). And then it describes things that humans have done with nature to create other types of beauty. At first, I thought, "How could not really appreciating 'wonder' be a gift?" It could be more of a curse because we forget so easily, but then again, we can always be reminded of the beauty and wonder around us because it is there (for now). I guess that this could be a gift, like I said before, that we can take the beauty around us, and make something else beautiful, such as earrings and make-up and weapons. So nature can have more than one purpose for beauty. Humans can be creative in that way, trying to remake something already beautiful. But maybe this takes away from the beautiful things that God already created in nature, and we, created by God, think we can do better than the Creator Himself. But this probably isn't the full intention behind the things that humans make to create a "manufactured beauty." And I totally agree though that we "humans / Can't sustain wonder." Nature around us does affect us and move us at times when we slow down and choose to be still in the nature around us. Then we are reminded.

These are the last few lines that caused me to ponder their meaning: "So easy, in imagination, to tell the story backward, / Because the earth needs a dream of restoration-- / She dances and the birds just keep arriving / Thousands of them, immense arctic flocks, her teeming life" (56). I am not sure why "in imagination" it is easy "to tell the story backward" as opposed to telling the story not in imagination. I think when Hass writes "to tell the story backward," he is thinking that we start the "story" from where we are at now, and then rewind to capture everything else and are then reminded of how things were before the destruction of the ozone layer and other things. We can jog our memory, thinking of the past and how things were once good, and we want that back now. Our earth needs "restoration" from the devastation that we humans have caused with our industrious selves. Then the last part could be an example of how our world can be restored. Venus, Roman goddess of love, beauty, fertility and prosperity, could maybe restore the earth and bring "her teeming life." Or, it could just mean that "she," the earth, keeps on spinning, "danc[ing]" and continues teem with life.

I think that overall, Hass has many beautiful descriptions that make the places he mentions come alive even though I have never been there. It allows my mind to create and picture based on Hass' words and imagine the beauty that he describes. He weaves this story of this girl and his conversation with Lucretius smoothly throughout this whole poem. And I think that this brings awareness to us, and reminds us of how we have "quite accidentally" ruined our earth from the time it began and bring to mind the beauty that does still exist in our world today (49).
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Spiritual Practice in Poetry: Mary Oliver's and My Own

I read through Mary Oliver's poems, and enjoyed them. Then I read Professor Corrigan's notes about spiritual practice and how that is placed into poetry. Then I read the poems again with a new light.

I enjoyed all of Oliver's poems, but the one that stood out to me was "Walking Home from Oak-Head." Oliver gives lovely descriptions of the winter weather. I could picture the things she described and it reminded me of home. I miss the winter weather and being in the snow and walking around in its beauty. But after reading that Oliver saw poetry as a spiritual practice, I looked beyond the literal picture of winter I had and dug for something deeper.

The title, "Walking Home from Oak-Head" is not just a journey through the woods, but rather our spiritual journey and how heaven is real. When Oliver mentions "home," she is not talking about a cottage in the woods, but our eternal home, Heaven. After some thought, these lines throughout this poem had new meaning for me. Such as: "or wander on slowly / like the still unhurried wind, / waiting, / as for a gift, / for the snow to begin / which it does / at first casually, / then, irrepressibly." I think that these lines are talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be like a wind around us; a presence that surrounds us. Also, there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and is a comfort to us. Or sometimes we wait for the evidence of speaking in tongues, by the Holy Spirit. And then when the Holy Spirit comes it's nice, but when we continue to engage in the presence, then the Holy Spirit comes more irrepressibly. We can't contain the Holy Spirit inside of us, but it all has to flow out and just become this presence around us.

When I first looked at this poem literally, it had a nice little story that gave me pretty pictures in my head. But reading through the text and the real meaning behind Oliver's words gave me an understanding of this "spiritual practice." It's so much deeper than the first time I read it. Oliver's writing is honestly a talent that she has been given, to weave in this spirituality so cleverly.

Lastly, the line "which is faithful beyond all our expressions of faith, / our deepest prayers" was powerful to me when I didn't even know what it really meant. But through this process, the answer to who or what is faithful, is simply Jesus. He is the one who is faithful, and He is my deepest prayer. I not only want Him to be in my life, but I need Him. He is my everything and I want to be like Him in all that I do.

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I went to Lake Bonny Park for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes. And my little poem was inspired by my time spent there.

The Things We Don't See

Every creature has its place in society,

Growing, spinning, crawling, flying, sitting.

This society is not for humans.

The trees, the grass, the water: all natural.

Through the calls, whispers and everyday

Chatter of this society,

Heard so near are the unnatural lives of motors,

Moving at a different pace.

How intricate and delicate are the webs spun.

Multitudes of complex and beautiful masterpieces,

Shimmering in the sunlight.

These creatures, living a life to catch others.

Not only catching, but living as a connector:

One who bridges the gap.

From one side to the other.

Staying strong.

Making as many ties as possible.

How often do we stop and think of the sparrow?

The one that God sees?

He watches over all the little things,

The little ones who struggle with just

Simple things.

We jump around, looking for the best position,

The best place to be.

Yet being just with the Creator is enough.

Being with Him and recognizing His voice

And His creation.

Yes, His works are wonderful, I know that

Full well.