Todd wrote another poem about bears called sleep. In this poem the bears feast on back berries and then succumb to what he calls the drug of sleep.
"How better to drift
toward another world but with leaves
falling, their warmth draping us,
our stomachs full and fat with summer?"
Reading this one I find myself wishing I could hibernate all winder, like a bear. It would be nice to fill up on blackberries and then hole up in a warm cave, just waiting for spring, enjoying the drug of sleep. This is a great fall poem.
There is one more poem about bears called The Poet Stumbles upon a Buddha in Gamelands 158 Above Tipton, Pennsylvania. This poem creates the image of a bear using his butt to push a thorny plant called the devil's walking stick out of the way so the bear and feast on the berries. I feel as though Todd is passing this bears satisfaction and care free attitude on for the rest of us to enjoy.
There is one more poem about bears called The Poet Stumbles upon a Buddha in Gamelands 158 Above Tipton, Pennsylvania. This poem creates the image of a bear using his butt to push a thorny plant called the devil's walking stick out of the way so the bear and feast on the berries. I feel as though Todd is passing this bears satisfaction and care free attitude on for the rest of us to enjoy.
This is style of Davis's writing that I hadn't recognized initially as having a carefree attitude. It's important to recognize that much of Davis's poetry simply depicts nature's freedom and enjoyable beauty, although i feel that he more often poses nature's simplicity as a contrast to our overly hectic, over-thought, and routine lives.
ReplyDeleteI like these poems! I am wondering, though, what the greater significance of the imagery is here and why Davis used bears as a starting off point. In "Sleep," it seems like he is trying to draw some parallels between human life and nature and the way we encounter ourselves as creatures of nature. The bear, then, could be a metaphor, or at least a place of reflection for Davis.
ReplyDeleteThanks for drawing our attention to these three bear poems, Jacob. Bears are human-like in some ways, and Davis invites readers to feel a deeper connection with these creatures, as you suggest when you say that "Seeing Things" created an imaginary connection for you with the bear. At the same time, it's a lot safer to create an empathic connection with bears in a poem than in real life! I like Hayley's suggestion that Davis helps us "to encounter ourselves as creatures of nature" in these poems.
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