For this semester of Pick A Poet, I decided to stick with Kay Ryan because I personally just love her concise and meaningful poetry. For this week, I decided to share her poem called, “DON'T LOOK BACK” because I really connected with her sentiment.
The poem’s main idea is that there is a mental clash between looking back and keeping your head forward. While there is no reference to people or human nature in the poem specifically, Ryan uses a continued metaphor of a fish and a goose to represent the 2 mentalities. Her idea is that a fish can't look back, move its neck, while a goose has the choice to turn his neck in all directions. “Fish cannot recklessly swivel their heads” but the “S-shaped necked goose” can clearly look back. I personally loved how Ryan used the ideas of a fish and a goose to demonstrate the difference between looking back and looking forward. It would’ve been so much easier to just tell an anecdote in order to relay this messaging, but it is so much more thought provoking to use animals as an extended metaphor.
A fish is a “torpido of disinterest”, this is the carefree, easygoing, and forward thinking person. But a goose represents those who dread their past or are even scared of their past (most normal people). Ryan relays this when she writes that “if she looks back acknowledges losses and if she doesn't also loses.” If the goose doesn't look back, he is merely a fish, “rely[ing] on the odds for survival.” There is a balancing act of looking forward and looking back. Learning from our past mistakes and understanding how we can improve the future.
Wow Noah! You're right - this really does connect to the idea we were discussing in class today! I love this poem so much. The idea that we, like the goose, lose either way but we still have to make that choice, and maybe it would be easier if, like the fish, looking back weren't even an option. What a great extended metaphor she used. Thank you for sharing!
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