State of the Planet

I was shocked to read that this was a poem! Other than it breaking up into different stanzas, I would not have recognized the poetry in this piece. I'm not trying to take away from it's quality, I actually really enjoyed reading it. There just didn't seem to be any patterns or flow to the structure of the lines. Than again, I'm not an expert in poetry myself ;)

I did notice that Robert Hass kept the same idea of the girl and her backpack. Although he went on tangents about the contents of her book, he didn't forget what he was talking about. And can I just say, that I was really interested in what he was writing! Maybe that's because I'm a biology major, but my biased preferences helped me to remain interested in the contents of this poem. I love science and the wonders of nature. But I also like poetry, so it was a good mix. I'm not quite sure why he decided to use this school girl in his poem; either it has a significant point, or he was just using her a doorway to talk about what he really wanted to talk about.

I also like this poem because I believe it is somewhat unique to other poems. This man is obviously very intelligent in the biological realm. But he also wanted to write poetry. As I sat here trying to figure out why this information would be put into a poem, I came up with a simple answer. He is simply doing what he loves. Does not God promise to give us the desires of our heart? How many of us have so many things that we love to do, but can't quite figure out what we want to do, or what God wants us to do? I love science and want to teach it one day. But I also want to be a missionary. I want to be a wife and a mother. I also love the elderly! I want to care for them one day. I want to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the helpless, and give hope to the hopeless. How can one accomplish all of this in one lifetime?! Why would God put so many desires in our hearts if not all of them can be fulfilled? I believe they can be fulfilled.

Let's get creative. Robert Hass loves science and poetry, and he made them work together. What things in our life can we join together and make work in harmony to be more effective? I don't know, just a thought I had as I was thinking about this poem. Think about the desires God has given you (not the desires you have because of being in this world, but the God-given desires) and how He wants you to use them. After all, they may be your desires, but its still all about Him!