Poetry Response #3

In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
—Mary Oliver

"In Blackwater Woods" by Mary Oliver is a poem about a fire that destroys a forest. Oliver uses different literary elements to convey the destruction of the fire. The clear imagery about the features of the land paints a lasting picture, the word choice creates a rhythm and smoothness, and the duties we are told to have as a humans makes this poem very meaningful. Oliver is able to convey the emotional loss she continues to carry around since it burned, and that caused me to really enjoy this poem.

In the first stanza, Oliver grabs the reader’s attention by saying, “Look the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light”. She beings with the verb “look” emphasize the importance of the forest burning to her. I loved how she describes the fire climbing up the trees and how it made them look like burning pillars. The image of a pillar caught on fire to describe the trees adds a bit of a shock value to the poem. She also uses personification when referring to the trees as bodies and alliteration with trees and turning to create flow.

One of Oliver’s strengths throughout the poem is the descriptiveness of the stanzas. She describes the scent of cinnamon the trees give off as they burn and paints a picture of the cattails bursting into flames and being taken away by the pond. In the third stanza Oliver writes, “…Bursting and flowing away over the blue shoulders of the ponds, and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now”. Her clear imagery contributes greatly to poem and conveys how the forest completely lost its identity after the fire.

In the last four stanzas, Oliver expresses her sadness and connection to the forest. She lists out the duties we as humans must be able to do: we must “love what is mortal”, meaning we must respect all living creatures, and “hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it…” Oliver writes if the time comes and you have to let it go, the best thing to do is let it go; remember the memories and let it go because that’s all you can do. I thought that was a great way to conclude the poem

Mary Oliver has a deep, personal connection to the Blackwater Woods that was destroyed. What made me really like this poem was how she painted a picture of her memory of the event and was able to let it go at the end. She took us through the process of seeing the trees catch on fire and the forest losing it’s identity completely, and then taught the reader about the duties we must be able to do to live in this world. Doing that caused the poem to make an impact on the reader and created a sense of meaningfulness.