Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "nature" poem, and (2) write a poem that incorporates "metonyms." A metonym is defined as "a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. For example, Washington is a metonym for the federal government of the US." NaPoWriMo points out that a metonym can also be a symbolic object, like a mango to represent the tropics. So they ask us to write a poem that invokes a specific object as a symbol of a particular time, era, or place.
I used both types of metonym in my poem today: "college" and "nature" are of the first type, and the clothing references are object metonyms for the era of the late 60s and early 70s. This poem is about an experience I seem to return to frequently on Earth Day, one of my more pleasant college memories.
helped our college plant trees.
Part of a tie-dye and bell-bottom brigade,
we dug holes and filled them
then covered them up with soil.
We didn't mind the dirt when
we bonded on that clear April day.
to see what became of those trees,
whether they are fifty feet tall,
or dead and cut down.
Nature still sends us warnings,
asking, What have you done, and
What have you done?
2 comments:
Very nice, Bruce. You really ought to go see those trees, if they're still there. If only because it would make a great Earth Day poem next year!
How far away are you from those trees?
Close enough to visit them on a day trip. I think the reason this memory keeps coming up is because I was proud to be an active part of the very first Earth Day, plus the girl I spent the day with became my first serious girlfriend in college (till I met my future wife.)
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