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

*** By: Mary Oliver

In Blackwater Woods: After reading the poem it made me think why I keep reading these poems about trees! Well , I really don't know but I really enjoyed this poem. From this poem I pulled a lot of different ideas from it, but I'm going to stick with the idea that this poem is about a forest burning down. Here is an example, " look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, " here is where I got the idea of a forest burning because the light is acting as fire climbing up the trunks of the trees. Refering back to the title In Blackwater woods I believe that Mary Oliver wanted to call it blackwater was due to the fact that all the ashes off the trees landed in the water to turn them black and leave them nameless. In her poem she said " To live in this world you must be able to do three thing: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it, and when time comes let it go, to let it go." After reading this I agree with her, you can love something as long as it is here but when it comes time to let it go, you need to let it go, and only remember the memories that you shared with it and move on....... Now, just a bit on the structure of the poem. The poem is made up into 9 stanzas and has 4 lines in each stanza. I noticed something kinda cool about this poem and it was before telling you what happened the stanza broke, for example " Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars (break) of light, it kind of gives the mind to think before reviling what really happened. So, after the second week of poetry I'm starting to enjoy it more and more.