American Primitive and Picnic, Lightning: Reader Response

When reading American Primitive and Picnic, Lightning I couldn’t help but appreciate the different styles in which they were written. American Primitive by author Mary Oliver consists of shorter stanzas and choppy language while Picnic, Lightning, written by Billy Collins consists of elongated phrases that flow together. I felt myself becoming entranced with their poetry because of the vivid imagery used. Although I found both books to be concentrated on nature I found American Primitive to be concentrated slightly on sex and struggles in history. Out of the two I would have to say that I enjoyed Picnic, Lightning the most. I enjoyed the easily flowing stanzas that incorporated ideals of the east, (Buddha and Japanese culture). From the references of Buddha I can infer that Billy Collins appreciation of nature could have something to do with the Japanese culture. A few of my favorite poems from Picnic, Lightning are: What I Learned Today, Splitting Wood, Moon, and The Many Faces of Jazz. Moon reminds me of when I was a child because I used to stare out my window at night and watch the moon. I love the way Billy Collins describes the night, “dark roses wave against a stone wall,” he made me feel like I was actually in the dark with him looking at the moon and becoming a child again. The Many Faces of Jazz also led me to a vivid picture in my mind and the meaning of the expressions. “Where the fixed grin joins the menacing stare, especially suitable for long drum solos” (Collins 72). Collins describes the different faces that I felt mirrored the Jazz music itself, and it almost seemed like Collins wasn’t talking about faces at all but of the melodies. Although I enjoyed many of the poems in Picnic, Lightning and could pull some sort of meaning from them there were a few poems that I found to be hard to analyze. Victoria’s Secret and Taking Off Emily Dickenson’s Clothes are among the poems I had a hard time understanding. Besides being slightly sexual it almost seems as if Collins is poking fun at the models of the VS catalog and the ways of women in the 16th century. It was an interesting approach to getting at the message Collins wanted to readers to have, unfortunately I was unable to grasp that message. In the book American Primitive I enjoyed such poems as: In the Pinewoods, Crows and Owl, Tasting the Wild Grapes, and Honey at the Table. In the Pinewoods, Crows and Owl is a poem filled with hatred towards power and made me feel disgusted at the idea of prey. The owl and the crow are in a mind battle with each other in a fight for survival. Mary Oliver writes mostly about nature but sometimes I think she is referring so something more sexual. In the poem The Honey Tree, Oliver’s descriptions seem a little too heated to be talking about a tree, “I clamber like a bear to the nuzzling place, to the light salvaged by the thighs of bees racked up in the body of the tree,” (Oliver 81). The words she uses such as clamber and racked up seem as if the tree could represent something else perhaps even another person in my mind. Overall I enjoyed reading poetry although I haven’t read much of it before so it took a little getting used to.