Hass-The State of the Planet: My thoughts

This is sort of a disjointed post. I really enjoyed reading this poem. I read it aloud and pondered each line sometimes reading the same line three or four times. There were a couple of times that I paused to look a word up in the dictionary to reinforce my memory, but for the most part, the writing was not far beyond my grasp.

The first quote in this poem that really got me was, “So that he can sell people dogs that grow in the dark...” This is rather repulsive to me. Why can't we just leave nature on it's own? It is so beautiful. Why would we want to turn a dog into something so ugly? Perhaps this is just my own opinion. This poem is the first time that I have ever heard of a jelly fish's “luminescence” being used in such a way and it makes me upset. I think it's because the jelly fish is an incredible creature. What makes it so amazing to me is that it is unique. If everything glowed in the dark and had the ability to sting, then jelly fish would not be so special, mesmerizing, and terrifying all at once. Then again, I suppose humans wear makeup, dye their hair, paint their nails, bathe, and wear all sorts of textiles to make themselves stand out from everything else. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with making Fido into a year-round Fourth of July wonder? I'm conflicted on this one.

“...humans

Can't sustain wonder, we'd never have gotten up

From our knees if we could...”

Or we would just be running around the earth looking at every little thing that catches our eye screaming and laughing and crying about how wonderful it all is, and then, perhaps, we'd forget to eat. We'd forget to sleep. We would forget to be sad. It would be a shame to sustain wonder because life's ups and downs, even the bad parts, are all part of a greater experience that stretches us and grows us as human beings.

In part seven, Hass says:

“Gouts of the oil that burns inside

The engine of the car I'm driving oozes from the banks”

He just painted vivid imagery of what it is like to trek through the rainforests of Ecuador, and then he reminds us of the sudden reality of pollution. It is hard to believe that some people are still so naïve and arrogant to think there's nothing wrong with oil floating through natural streams. I used to volunteer to take a census of the fish in the rivers and streams of North Carolina. We would take water samples too, and I remember the ranger in charge of our project telling us that we had to be careful of some species becoming extinct. I was twelve at the time and that really hit home to me. This beauty is all going to leave us if we don't take care of it. Or worse, we will die at the hands of our own evil.