I had to tell a class today that sometimes a cactus is just a cactus, that a scarred saguaro standing with arms outstretched is not necessarily Christ, even if it appears in a poem. We're dealing here with the devotional approach to poetry, which treats the poem as a tool for personal improvement. I am impressed by my students' ability to find in poems messages intended to warm their hearts or inspire their actions, but when I urge them to move beyond What the Poem Means to Me and think about How the Poem Means, I encounter resistance. Alliteration just isn't very inspiring, is it? And noticing the number of stresses or syllables or beats per line requires counting. Counting is for children. We are adults, and if we want to see Jesus in the arms of a cactus, then that's what we'll do. There's no arguing with What the Poem Means to Me.
But sometimes, I assert, a cactus is just a cactus--a Saguaro cactus doubly so.
2 comments:
What kind of inquiring mind wants, nay, needs to see Christ in a cactus and then doesn't take that extra step to wonder exactly why and how the poem inspires that image, that meaning? Crazy kids, I tell you.
Fantastic blog, by the way. What a great way to keep in touch!
Sometimes, though, a Saguaro cactus is Santa Claus. If you don't believe me, visit Arizona in December.
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