Robert Creeley

I can not believe it, but this is it! The last blog post for the semester!

I want to start off with a confession. I was really skeptical at the beginning of this semester whether this new experience of blogging would be worth it. I wasn’t sure whether or not I would gain anything from it. But I have. It has really helped a lot to have to write my feelings down on the poems we read in class. It’s helped me understand and enjoy them a lot more.

Anyway, let’s start with Robert Creeley. The poem that caught and held my attention was “The Flower”. In the first stanza, Creeley writes “I think I grow tensions like flowers…” I believe Creeley to be saying here that tension is a part of life. As someone who struggles with anxiety on a daily basis, I definitely understand. It’s hard to relax when your own brain stays tense all the time. In the second stanza, Creeley writes that “Each wound is perfect, encloses itself in a tiny  imperceptible blossom, making pain.” I feel Creeley is saying here that each of our experiences (“each wound”) is different, and affects us in different ways. When we go through our experiences, they “blossom” and create in us pain that we continue to feel throughout our lives. The most powerful symbol of the poem is in the third verse, where Creeley writes “Pain is a flower”. Pain is something that we usually think of as bad, something to be avoided. But Creeley here compares it to a flower, which is something we usually think of as beautiful. So, I feel like Creeley is saying here that pain is something that can help us become who we were meant to be.

As I said earlier, it’s been good, guys. Hope you all have a great summer!