Welcome back, peeps. We're back at it with another Ada Limón poem from Bright Dead Things.
The Rewilding By Ada Limón
What should we believe in next?
Daniel Boone’s brother’s grave says, Killed by Indians.
We point at it; poke at it like a wound—
history’s noose.
Below the grave, a cold spring runs.
Clear, like a conscience.
Now, I’m alone.
Only me and the white bones of an animal’s hand
revealed in the silt.
There remains the mystery of how the pupil devours
so much bastard beauty. Abandoned property.
This land and I are rewilding.
A bird I don’t know, but follow with my still living eye.
The day before me undresses in the wet Southern heat:
flower mouth,
pollen burn,
wing sweat.
I don’t want to be only the landscape: the bone’s buried.
Let the subject be
the movement of the goldenrod, the mustard,
the cardinal, the jay, the generosity.
I don’t want anything, not even to show it to you—
the beakgrass, bottlebrush, dandelion seed head,
parachute and crown, all the intention of wishes, forgiveness,
this day’s singular existence in time, the native field flourishing selfishly, only for itself.
Thoughts going through my mind:
Rewilding = "a progressive approach to conservation; it's about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes." Pretty much means make wild again.
"This land and I are rewilding" = focusing on the symbiotic relationships between humans and the Earth. But...how so? Why this land?
The plosive beat of "point" and "poke" & "Killed by Indians" reference = imagery highlighting our reckoning with a ghastly/embarrassing past?
Interesting how the words "wound" and "noose" force the mouth to make circular loops (complex imagery of ropes?)
Lots of alliteration: "bastard beauty," "bone's buried," "field flourishing," "clear like a conscience" --> contributes to momentum and maintains pace of the poem
"a cold springs" = underlines this notion of "stream of consciousness" vs. "clear conscience"
"I don't want to be only the landscape" = wants to make a mark in a new setting? The narrator doesn't want to 'drift' or merely become an individual who passes by
Similar to the poems we have seen in the first part of Bright Dead Things, Limón seems to reflect on her experience in a new environment (opposite setting from New York) and attempts to illustrate her feelings/what she sees onto paper
I think I'll wrap it up here for now. If you would like to share anything, feel free to send me a private memo or drop any comments below. I'll see you tomorrow.
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