Our Days- Rae Armantrout
This week I read the poem Our Days by the poet Rae Armantrout. This poem happened to be a very short poem separated into two parts. The first part was about a simple day during corona and the fear of people being too close to one another. The second part was about the random nature of fascination. It is interesting because this poem is very simple, yet encompassed two typical days during quarantine: as this poem was actually written in May 2020 during the lockdown period.
I was able to relate to this poem because when this pandemic first started my worse fear was interacting with other humans. I would walk by others on the sidewalk and be so nervous that they might be carriers of the coronavirus. It is sad to think that this pandemic has made us fearful of one another and have a lack of comfort when around other human beings. In the poem Rae mentions a salesman coming to her house but mentions that the sales leader "stands too close as he begins his pitch- close enough to spread the virus".
The second part of the poem was rather familiar as the poet discusses the attraction she has to random objects and "things that make no sense". I connected to this part because I find the tiniest things to be very enticing. For example, the other day I was walking around my neighborhood and found a tiny Blue Jay nest resting in an Elm tree. It was so exciting as I have always noticed one Blue Jay roaming around my backyard this past year but never knew of its origin. When I found this nest I was utterly fascinated by this and it made my day so special. For most people, finding a nest might be deemed unworthy of such excitement, but because I find peculiar items to be interesting I was so happy to have discovered this nest.
What are unique things in life you deem exciting?
Being at home so much has definitely made me more aware of appreciating the smallest things! Especially outside when I get to see this cute little squirrel that's always in my backyard. Even things like all the flowers between the cracks of the brick path floor to the sparkling dew drops on leaves after it rains when it's still sunny out can make me feel a little better when lonely during these times. It feels comforting to get excited about the things we often don't notice and/or take for granted.
ReplyDeleteThe fear of being too close to people is such a sad reality about the world we live in today. I believe that after this is all over, people will have lost the essence of what it's like to be close to another person. It's something we lack today, but in a way I have noticed the "things that make no sense."
ReplyDeleteThis poem sounds pretty deep. It's very interesting with the Coronavirus how scared we were at first when it wasn't even so bad and how not scared we are now that it is a lot worse. I don't like that people are fearing more than they have to but it is fueled by the political climate that we live in today.
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