Treks and Texts

      In this poem, Oliver begins by describing the birds as acrobats flying through the air with intricacy and grace. She is mesmerized by their movements as they soar through the sky. She then goes to reflect on a message about how even in her times of grief, winter, and an ashy city she thinks back to these beautiful animals. The memories lift her spirits and have her desire that level of flight and freedom. I love her ending line as she writes, "I feel my heart pumping hard. I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.      I think that reflecting on these beautiful creatures and seeing them move through the world shows how much freedom the natural world has. During hard times of our lives, just watching the birds can lift our spirits and remind of us what we long to have. How we long to be free of our worries. How we wish to leave ...

      I think this poem was a bit amusing to read. Oliver starts in almost a pessimistic mood as one wanders through gardens filled with glass and other rubbish. She then goes to describe the little wrens that spend their days filling pails with sticks, diving into the water, and whistling throughout their work. Her last line to describe these wrens is, "foolish birds." I understood this as almost being unamused by the simplicity and contentment in the life of a wren. They spend their days doing small tasks that in the grand scheme seem unimportant to us while moving on in pure bliss. I sometimes find myself feeling a bit of envy for birds and other animals when I am caught up in my life and stressed. How nice it would be just to gather sticks and sing all day. How unbothered and content a life of no expectations must me. I wish to be a foolish bird without a care in the world. We might envy the simplicity of nature while we build a world revolving around innovation....

      When I first read this poem I was instantly drawn into it. While drawing on depictions of nature and geese, Oliver really tells the story of the human experience. How simple we are as creations amongst the natural world and how small our worries really are in the grand scheme of things. She says you do not have to be good or walk through the desert repenting you just have to love what you love. I think the line that stood out to me the most was, "Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on." As humans we all have our struggles and troubled times that consume our minds on the daily. She offers this transaction of despairs to almost show how everyone is going through something but the world still moves on. We should not be hung up on the small moment of despair but look up to the whole world ahead of us. She ends by saying, "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like th...

       This week my group set off again for the nature center. I still have not gotten used to walking across campus in my hiking boots and full covering outfit to meet my carpool but I guess that will come with time. It is kind of fun getting used to having this outing in my schedule and getting to meet new people my senior year. My project group all rides together and we get to recap our weeks and plans to come. At this point in college it its nice to still get to meet new people and share time together. Outside cleaning up nature, it really is a good bonding experience for many of us before we all leave to start our new lives post graduation. Many of the people in our class I met Freshman year in Milton Daniel Hall so it is cool to all reconnect and work together on a project such as this.      This time at the center was a little different. We all knew the game plan for the most part and got right to work. We all gathered our branches, brush, trees...

      When I heard we were going to the Nature Center I really did not know what to expect. I had gone to the Nature Center a long time ago for a school trip but nothing recent. I set out with my project group and we all arrived at the meeting spot. While waiting for the others we got to look at the collection of animal skulls and see the inside. Once we all got outside we learned the rules of the wood chipper and were whisked away to start work. Never in my life did I think I would be using a wood chipper or cleaning out forests but today was the just the beginning. We got our safety equipment and began the job. At first, was not really sure what to look for or how to be the most productive but I just went for it. After I got the hang of it, it was kind of fun getting to use the machines and clean up our area.      The whole time I was just so amused about the work I was doing. Never in a million years would I have predicted by Tuesdays of my Senior year t...