Lucid Nature

Like the definition of ‘poetry’, the definition of ‘Nature’ has retained its ‘freedom’ from being expressed and explained in a couple of words.

Contemporary poetry favours free forms not inundated by rhetorical terms. Without bringing Sean O'Carroll’s Lucid Nature under the technical microscope of stressed and unstressed syllables, one can still enjoy the progressive expression of varied feelings of the poet, feelings that manifest subtly, provoking deep thoughts.

Lucid Nature, a collection of poems written by O'Carroll in Wild Dog Valley, would have nicely accommodated a few words of introduction as to it being poems written by the poet who worked towards re-wilding Wild Dog Valley, a 65 acre property in South Gippsland, Australia, land that was almost given up for cattle grazing.

The poet’s intentional togetherness with Nature to understand life in a better way has made him to create a wild-path for the reader to appreciate elegant Nature, too. Equipped with the knowledge of the geographic details of the valley, Nature in all its suddenness, ecological elements, spirituality and the likes, the poet trudges along, gathering the spirits of imagination, weeding out misconceptions, recognising nature right from grassroots.

146 poems with titles are grouped under, ‘Nature’, ‘Poetry’, ‘Relationship’, ‘Self’, ‘Men’, ‘Living’, and ‘Being’. Lucid Nature opens with the poem, ‘That’s where I’ll be’ (14). Creating a clear picture of Wild Dog Valley, the poet beckons the reader to experience surrounding Nature, instructing all the while, yet, sweeping in an air of warmth like an appreciative host:

Stay close to the wall If you don’t wish to fall And make for the peak that you see

(14)

The poet cautions the reader about experiencing ‘intended loneliness’ with Nature, an art to be acquired and practiced to perfection in order to appreciate the experience:

And alone at the top With the wolves and the gods And the wild ones That’s where I’ll be

(14)

There is not a single point in the poem that detracts the reader from the central focus of the narrative.

As if in continuation, the second poem, ‘Lucid Nature’ (15) follows beautifully, enhancing rather than enforcing the familiar imagination of the poet. He says;

You do not respect nature You do not trust nature You do not love nature You cannot regard nature in this way Anymore than a river can have feelings for water

(15)

This reminds me of the philosopher Confucius.

Confucius defined ‘Shu’ both positively and negatively. In a negative sense he said: 'What you do not wish others to do unto you, don’t do it to others.' Speaking positively, he said: 'What you wish to do for yourself, do it to others. … Help others as you would help yourself.' He did not speak of 'doing unto others as you want others to do unto you', because he thought that one’s own conscience should be the origin of good deeds (Wang 1968, 23).

Applying Confucian understanding, this can also be interpreted as: 'If disrespected, nature does not respect you / If distrusted, nature does not trust you / If un-loved nature does not love you / If regarded in the way as done at present, nature cannot have anymore feelings than that as water to river'. The poet continues:

To be fully human Is to fall With intention You are after all Lucid nature

(15)

Trying to uncover the meaning of life, possibly through Nature, the poem, ‘It is not nature I crave’ (16) states:

It is not nature I crave But truth Though truth abounds In nature

(16)

The poet, as narrator, expresses his concern that the truth he is seeking is not outside but is reflected within:

And The mirror of the city Is fogged The mirror of nature Clear

(16)

Lines that describe the repetitive tenor of the poet’s unpretentious intentions are:

Every man ought spend A year in the woods

(19-20)

These lines appear in the poem, ‘A year in the woods’(19), dedicated obviously to the man who made the woods famous, Thoreau. To feel connected to Nature, to experience special insight, the poet asks the reader:

Sit in stillness, with Nothing to accomplish Find that birds, do Not speak gibberish Let the stream caress his dreams And nurse his childhood wounds

(19)

To satisfy the self by being with Nature, is to understand poet’s view:

A year in the woods May not make him whole But will fix some of what’s broken And help him see That what is said Is more than what is spoken Every man ought spend A year in the woods

(20)

Modulating syllables and sounds harmonically in the poem, ‘The wind’, the poet adds an enchanting imagery,

The wind Taps me on the shoulder Like an old friend Gesturing towards the natural world

(29)

With its likeness to ballad, the poem, ‘The city makes us small’ (30), reads like music with reason, acting on one’s conscience. 'The city makes us small / Blocks out all horizons / And dampens every star? / The city makes us small' (30). This pattern continues locking one’s thoughts within the brackets of ‘The city makes us small’, and keeps changing the train of thoughts at each turn of a paragraph.  The poet establishes the fact:

The city makes us small The city makes us fools There’s a wisdom in the woods A knowing that’s worth knowing

(32)

The poet sings perception of harmony in ‘An ode to white butterflies’ (37), and conveys with internal rhymes, the true meaning of Nature in ‘The nature of nature’ (48).

Lucid Nature keeps up the regular rhythm and maintains tempo nicely, but, somewhere down the poetic valley, the focus of the poet shifts, towards art of poetry, relationships, spirituality, quest for the meaning of ‘I’, the self, familial bonds, purposes in relationships and such other materialistic, inexhaustible variety of ideas.

Inevitably, the reader loses track amidst Wild Dog Valley, because of the poet’s irrepressible excitement.

A syllogism can be drawn here: ‘Lucid Nature’ is one of the finest empathetic eco-poems in Sean O' Carroll’s year long collection of poems while staying in Wild Dog Valley. Not all poems in Lucid Nature are empathetic eco-poems.

Lucid Nature’s poet is a promising poet in the making. There is a literary perception of Johnsonean principles of Unity that could be applied to the appreciation of Poetics too. But there is this concept of Poetic License.  Sean O' Carroll’s understanding of Consensus Nature Philosophy will enchant the futuristic literary world, his thoughts appealing more to heart than to just conscious feelings. I am reminded of Johnson’s words:

Dryden remarks that Milton has some flats among his elevations. This is only to say that all the parts are not equal. In every work one part must be for the sake of others; a palace must have passages, a poem must have transitions. It is no more to be required that wit should always be blazing than that the sun should always stand at noon. In a great work there is a vicissitude of luminous and opaque parts, as there is in the world a succession of day and night. Milton, when he has expiated the sky, may be allowed sometimes to visit the earth; for what other author ever soared so high or sustained his flight so long? (Johnson 1779: 210)