-Vanessa Kiefer (‘20)

 

Now the rich garden, whose split weather,

And mutations taken place

Like the death of one Earth,

Replaced by suburban weeds.

Though maybe it is not tethered

To a large wilderness of haste,

But a rambunctious garden hearth

That once innocent now needs.

 

Human Nature; and overgrown irony

When curtains are undrawn,

We can poke our fingers in

For the dancing birds and singing trees.

For the first time, a collision without tyranny

To kneel before a log, not to cause harm,

Stand upon the rippling lava field ridden

of stress, of the buzzing bees.

 

Touching, submerging, emerging

From the charred waste.

Despite the cunning flaws,

Hope, it is the ember in the ashes.

Like the man who finds it so deserving

To swing from an elder tree with taste

On break from the world’s business cause

Before a war on nature backlashes.

 

This poem was inspired by the photo series “Human Nature” by Lucas Foglia, who achieved in making a mirage of familiarly ironic yet breathtaking photos of the human interaction with nature. Though some of the photos have an amusing element to them, such as a shot of a woman completely immersed in mud, they all ultimately share underlying messages in regards to the natural world and how we affect it. Considering what is deemed as “normal” in today’s advanced societies, nature is ultimately one of the last priorities on a person’s to-do list, hence the roles of business buildings, schools, technology and other unnatural factors in the average person’s life. But as Foglia so prominently portrays, nature is one of the most loving rewards for simply being on this planet, and it is crucial that we continue to take care of our Earth as we move through the 21st century.