FlightsI set out early on my Saturday morning jaunt, listening
To the conversations of crows and seagulls playing in Budd Inlet. By the time I had traipsed south to West Bay Park My neck and shoulders had released most of their tension And I looked east to Mt. Rainier, resplendent In the fresh and bracing morning air. There I saw three perfectly shaped spaceships Hovering over the mountain, their inhabitants Presumably come to save us from ourselves. Well, yes, I knew what I viewed were not extraTerrestrials but lovely lenticular clouds, But, wait, might some interplanetary denizens Of higher intelligence than we have descended With a plan to end the bellicose, sexist, racist, Homophobic, elitist gunk we daily feast on Or regurgitate, depending on our proclivities? I thought about how a great blue heron once, Years ago, took off from a dock where I had Spent an hour meditating, to give me an Epiphanic jolt, a slavic shock which I, in my smugness Badly needed. This morning I mused on such sudden visitations And almost stepped on a tiny caterpillar as I resumed My walk. My God, I might have terminated the life Of a future butterfly sent somehow from an unknown Sphere to keep us mindful of the freshness Deep down things which would help us survive Our silly selves. |
One important parameter that we set for our poetry map is the poem had to have a place name, either in the title, or somewhere in the body of the poem. This is so our audience will be able to acutely identify why this poem is placed where it is. Foran places his speaker in West Bay Park, commenting on Budd Bay Inlet and Mt. Rainier from this location. For someone familiar with this area (I grew up less than a mile from West Bay Park), these proper nouns give an immediate image of where the speaker is. Based on these very prominent place names used by Foran, he seems to be writing towards a local audience that will understand the references and empathize with the beauty that is surrounding the speaker. Foran also utilizes first person in order to make the poems more personal and confessional. Foran introduces his speaker with the first person, “I” from the get go, this creates a more personal relationship between the speaker and the audience, allowing the audience to feel that the speaker is confiding in them. Within this first person narrative, the speaker brings some snarky humor into the situation. Foran’s speaker comments on the bleak state of our society by saying,
”But, wait, might some interplanetary denizens Of higher intelligence than we have descended With a plan to end the bellicose, sexist, racist, Homophobic, elitist gunk we daily feast on Or regurgitate, depending on our proclivities?” (lines 13-17) He goes from enjoying a morning jaunt in the park to making a social commentary on the toxicity of our society. It is a jump that is startling but also makes the speaker feel more like a real person. This sort of snarky, relatable language adds to the familiarity the audience feels towards the speaker, rather than just some distant nature imagery. The specific place names then lend themselves to be avenues in which the speaker can comment on the nature around him/her. The poet utilizes nature imagery that would categorize the poems under ‘eco-poetics’- or poems related to the outdoor world. The speaker in Foran’s poem describes Mt. Rainer as “resplendent/ In the fresh and bracing morning air” (lines 6-7). But what on the surface just seems like two poems about Puget Sound beauty is actually a musing on how nature can help us escape from the dullness of human life. In Foran’s poem, the speaker says: ...a future butterfly sent somehow from an unknown Sphere to keep us mindful of the freshness Deep down things which would help us survive (lines 26-28) The speaker is using the image of the butterfly as the symbol for the natural world which is supposed to help us survive day to day life. For Foran’s speaker, his walk around West Bay Park is one in which he can release the “tension” in his neck and be reminded of the natural beauty that helps keep him going. The natural setting of the poem serves as an antidote for the internal struggles that plague an introspective person. This poem exemplifies some patterns that I witnessed in the Western Washington poems I read for this project. The nature imagery serves as a vehicle in which the speakers can explore some part of their inner selves. The personal use of first person point of view and the specific setting allows the reader to be encompassed by the poem. All these things create an intensely personal poem that is written towards a local audience, or an audience that can relate to the Western Washington setting. By Mackenzie Price |
Don Foran Biography
Don Foran earned his PhD in English from USC and then earned and a post doctoral MA in Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He was a professor of English and Philosophy at both Centralia College and Evergreen State College. Foran has been the recipient of multiple awards including 1995’s Professor of the Year award in and “Most Distinguished Advisor in the Western United States.” Foran retired from teaching in 2010 after teaching at Centralia for 25 years. He has worked with the Washington Commission for the Humanities, lecturing on literature, ethics, and education in Washington State.
