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| (Reddit paintings by u/Spadoynkal & u/Illuhstraighter) |
Barely noticing the sun,
brushing it away like a passing fly,
I focused on the waves with you
while fog-under-fire vaporized.
Not noticing the rocks, until
a wave threw them at your ankle bones,
you stood where sea swells flopped
out flat, and skipped imperfect stones.
Late noticing the wind's intent,
I wondered how your leg hairs raised,
covered in light and salt and sand,
As we watched high white shapes graze.
Unnoticing that we were grown,
you point: “that cloud is a swimmer with—
a dog he's rescued? On his back.” And
they were worth laughing for, myth on myth.
“Don't blame the rock! It's your hand that threw.”
“Well, sometimes it's the rock that decides.”
Or the water, layered on itself, or the
matching of lungs with the tide.
“Ever been weightless before?” you ask.
I murb “Just as a dreaming afterthought.”
“Oh really?!” you shout, off a globe without
a stand, “Can't we both be terranauts?”
I was pulled into this poem by the collage. It looks like it came out of Guardians of the Galaxy, or was taken off of the NASA website. The poem is talking about not noticing things until they are right in front of you. The speaker brushes away the sun, hardly noticing, like the way I brush away being hungry while I’m at school. I wait to eat until I get home, because I hate to eat in the morning. The speaker does not notice the rocks until they hit his partner’s ankles. I do not notice how tired I am until I wake up exhausted every morning, which feels like it also hits me. I cannot notice anything because of the biggest thing in my life that I ALWAYS notice. My anxiety. It’s hard to think about anything else because it’s always prevalent.
ReplyDelete“Unnoticing that we were grown” is also a tough thing to think about. It’s hard to notice that you’re growing up. I always thought I was so old when I was a little kid, and now I’m about to graduate high school and head to Penn State. This is a huge difference from being a Safety Patrol in fifth grade and thinking I was old because I was in the top grade in the school. Life really does fly by, and thinking about growing up is hard to do. If I think about it too much, I freak out about getting old, and what happens after death, and what will happen in my future. Like I said before, it’s not easy to think about, and it can cause me to worry. This is not helpful to the aforementioned prevalent anxiety that distracts me from the rest of my life, but I do like the way the poem deals with being unable or choosing not to notice things.
I thought this poem was very fascinating. I was imagining recent experiences in the ocean with the vivid imagery, and then when I read the first line of the 4th stanza “Unnoticing that we were grown,” it really hit me and I realized the meaning of the poem.
ReplyDeleteThe first part reminded me of being carried away while swimming in the waves (since there’s a current) but not noticing until you’ve been significantly displaced from your original spot on the beach, which is something that happens to me a lot. I like the descriptions of the waves and wind as independent entities with specific intent, leading one to go different ways in life without even realizing how they are being carried away by the tide as it were. The part about unnoticing that we’re grown made me realize that the whole poem can be applied to growing up in general. The last few years of my growing up have felt especially fast just like this poem; I haven’t really noticed the sun, waves, or years going by until suddenly it’s almost over and I find myself in this current situation, about to be a real adult. Also the emphasis on more trivial things like skipping rocks and clouds but not the sunburn does a really good job showing this distracted childhood state, or even just life in general. I also noticed the idea of how things seem like they’re not your decision; how it’s the rock that decided where to go, etc. And the idea of weightlessness also described the feeling of being out of control and letting life take you where it does, like a “globe without a stand” spinning through space… I often feel like that looking back on my own life.
Are kids "distracted"? Or are they just completely, immersively present in the experience of being there ... while a more 'grown-up' you hasn't "really noticed the sun, waves, or years going by until suddenly it’s almost over and I find myself in this current situation"?
DeleteWho's distracted? And which way do you want to exist, given the choice (which is a choice that we all have)?
:) Things to think about...
I loved this poem and the imagery of the imperfect skipping stones. It made me think of a time when my ex-girlfriend and I were watching the sunset on the beach. It was a beautiful sunset, but I spent most of it looking at her admiring the sunset because I loved her. It made me happy to see her so happy. All my thoughts about school work and other obligations went away because I was with her. It was like that every time I saw her, nothing else mattered. The poem made me think of this moment because the speaker is only able to focus on the world around him if it concerns the person he is with. This goes to show how love can totally change your perception of what is meaningful because one person, or anything that is the subject of intense love, becomes the most important thing in the universe. The line “unnoticing that we were grown” made me think of graduation. I have been blessed with incredible friends that let me stay in the moment, making me forget how much we have all grown together. When you love what you are doing or who you are doing it with, it is easy to stay in the present moment, instead of wondering what future holds or missing the past. I liked how the writing was focused on conversation about somewhat meaningless topics because it demonstrates the importance of enjoying life in the moment. This is something that I struggle with everyday, especially in my last year of high school, as I try and plan my future. This poem reminded me that enjoying every moment as if it is the most important moment in the world, should be a priority and would allow for a happier life.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear the word “sunburn” my mind immediately jumps to the careless and worry-free nature of childhood, and the small price to pay for a day spent in the sun. I grew up in southern California where summer days are spent at the beach with friends and if you don’t get at least one threat of skin cancer – you are living your life wrong. So, when in response to the sunburn is the childish response of ignoring or even not noticing it because it could distract from the now intrigued me because I feel like as we get older, we get distracted by the unperfections that limit us from focusing on what is in front of us.
ReplyDeleteA little of a tangent of a story, but when I was in seventh grade, I took yoga classes, and one day one of my fellow classmates asked the instructor if she preferred to teach the adults or us – the youngins. She responded with “The young people” and she explained it was because we were open to try new things and ignored the risks of what might happen if we do and instead focused on what we lose if we did not. The characters have this same innocent fearlessness that directs their actions.
Throughout the poem, the continuation of the youthful approach to life was refreshing because the curiosity and creative nature reminded me of the days of playing pretend. In the first stanza, the presence of the sun reminded me of a parental figure, and the characters choosing to ignore its warnings for the chaos of the waves and making memories despite the dangers. The presence of the rocks was not an object of injury, but more an opportunity for a new skill, like rock skipping.
I found a change in mood, though, in the fourth stanza with the line “unnoticing that we were grown,” as the characters are trapped within their childhood and unable to grow beyond the occasional petty nature of young people and shifting blame from themselves to others or other objects.
The final line about “both” of them being terranauts is refreshing because so often we compete to see who can be the best, who can throw the rock the farthest, or who could make the next discovery, who could find the best cloud and the statement forces the thought that we all can be whatever we want to be and purely find joy in our existence.
I think that this poem is a beautiful example of the feeling of childlike love and how even when there are things around you that are uncomfortable or harsh, if you love someone that deeply, you are able to give your full attention to them. When I read this poem, I almost feel the dewy wetness of a sunset fog on my face as I sit on a beach with someone I love. It is one of the best feelings in the world to forget everything and enjoy a moment appreciating the world and the ocean. The imagery of you not noticing the waves throwing rocks at your ankle bones as you focus on the waves is so vivid, and simultaneously ignites feelings of pain and comfort. Wondering how someone's leg hair raises as they are covered in salt and sand almost feels like a moment of pure intimacy and innocence; I never could have imagined how leg hair could spark these feelings, but as I imagine this feeling I can understand. This poem is so rich with the beauty of childhood, but also the process of getting older. I am 18 years old, about to graduate high school, and yet I still feel like I am trapped in a 13-year-old body, getting ready to graduate middle school. You created a sense of relatability to me, because I, too, don't notice that I am grown. Laying on a beach and creating shapes out of the clouds feels inherently “childish,” but in this poem it serves as a beautiful symbol of the everlasting presence of my childhood innocence. The collage perfectly encapsulates the feeling of weightlessness that the poem describes. The bright colors, vibrant textures, and atmospheric composition help me visualize a feeling of complete and utter freedom, barely noticing the sun.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel any better, none of us are grown at 18 ~ we're growing (the brain doesn't reach it's full formation until 25), and at 40 I'm still growing (even while my chin and nose and eyebrow hairs and skin blemishes and mysterious growths like to remind me that I am very much ripe and en route to withering).
DeleteAnd the longer we keep growing, the more respect washes back in toward those who can manage unbridled enjoyment and imaginative freedom in simple moments: in nature, in relationships, in passing through the atmosphere :)
This poem had many intricate details that took multiple readings to understand. Every stanza mentioned something about water, sand, swimming, or waves, which strongly alluded to a large body of water like an ocean. The overall mood of the poem takes place in a sort of dream-like state, almost like a flashback where the speaker and his/her friend are playing in the water. It brought back many of my memories of playing in the waves with my family as a child. At that moment, I had no care in the world but simply relaxed into a dream-like state. Everything else seemed insignificant: the sun pounding on my sunblock-lacking skin, the waves hitting my body, the rough rocks under my feet. Reading this poem made me realize that these memories are precious but scarce. I cannot recall many memories of this caliber from my recent years. Perhaps this means that I have not been truly living in the moment; I was always preoccupied with some sort of deadline, problem, or task that I had to solve. However, the mention of terranauts and dreaming in the last stanza added an element of sci-fi, and the Reddit drawing that accompanied this poem on the website helped bolster this notion. This poem feels like something from out of this world, which is one of the reasons why I believe it resembles the ocean planet in the popular movie Interstellar. Similar to the movie, the main characters are in the water of an extraordinary, foreign place. I found it very interesting that the rest of this poem’s collage also had sci-fi elements. This, in turn, reinforces the overall fantasy feel of the poem, as it is part of a larger group of similarly fascinating poems.
ReplyDeleteI love the otherworldly feeling that this poem presents. To read this poem feels like a multilayered experience, with something to uncover in each new line, and I love that it can bring out such a unique feeling within me in the way that it breaks so many common poetry patterns. The first two stanzas encapsulate the feeling of summer, with the unawareness of the sunburns and stones being thrown around by the waves. In the heat of summer, nothing really matters or needs to be given a lot of attention, especially as a little kid, and that is the feeling that I get when reading the first two stanzas. My favorite line is “unnoticing that we were grown” at the beginning of the fourth stanza because it resonates with me at the time of life I am at. Many would say I am still so young and have so much life ahead of me, but I feel like I am so old (going into college), and I cannot believe I have come so far. This year has been one of much reflection, and so, looking back, I sometimes forget how old I really am and the responsibilities I now have. Upon reaching the end of the poem, I had to look up the word terranaut and found that it can mean someone who explores some part of the Earth, but that the word is primarily used in fiction. I think every child dreams of exploring part of the Earth at some point, but what stood out to me the most is that these people exist in fiction. The poem took on more of a dreamlike perspective at that point, with the haze and lack of awareness resembling that of a dream or subconscious thought.
ReplyDelete