{"id":1653,"date":"2014-10-04T11:42:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T16:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2014-10-04T11:44:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T16:44:30","slug":"poem-the-awe-might-he-acorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/04\/poem-the-awe-might-he-acorn\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: The Awe Might He Acorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The acorns fall<\/strong>
\nLike reign<\/strong>
\nFrom above<\/strong>
\nAs the mighty yoke is broken<\/strong>
\nFlailing to grasp the gravity of the situation<\/strong>
\nEach won<\/strong>
\nA tiny oak<\/strong>
\nTolled by nature<\/strong>
\nIf only<\/strong>
\nSuch nuts<\/strong>
\nCan hold there ground<\/strong>
\nAnd a void<\/strong>
\nEither being<\/strong>
\nSquirreled away<\/strong>
\nAs the winter takes root<\/strong>
\nOr perhaps robin<\/strong>
\nTheir shady future<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wrote this poem amidst writing another poem.\u00a0 I was reclining on one of the benches outside the Toledo Museum of Art, in the sculpture garden that is their front lawn.\u00a0 This bench happened to be under a large oak tree.\u00a0 There was a slow rain of acorns punctuating my experience.\u00a0 I was hit several times as I interrupted the arc of the acorn-gravity continuum.\u00a0 The squirrels seemed quite domesticated, likely due to their stomping grounds being traversed by a pedestrian highway populated by humans more civilized than normal.\u00a0 One squirrel, only half a dozen feet away from me, nibbled on the abundance of freshly fallen acorns, seemingly satisfied with compromising each acorn shell within grasp, taking a quick nibble, and then tossing the acorn aside.\u00a0 This struck me as being a bit wasteful. Yet, the scarcity of my perspective was in sharp contrast to the overabundance of acorns, of which nature unlikely intended each acorn to become a mighty oak tree.\u00a0 This situation reminded me of an aphorism: the mighty oak is simply a tiny nut that held its ground.\u00a0 Of course, in the complexity of nature, perhaps the author of this aphorism might have amended it to include something about that nut avoiding his cranium being crushed by a squirrelly beast.\u00a0 My daughter has a serious fright about squirrels.\u00a0 The origins of this fear are unidentifiable.\u00a0 Perhaps she was an acorn in a previous life and a squirrel nonchalantly crushed her cranium and then casually threw her aside, thinking nothing of her casualty.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the job of a poet is to take seemingly mundane or routine occurrences and infuse them with epic meaning.\u00a0 While the crushing of one’s cranium by a seemingly harmless squirrel may be an apt definition of epic meaning, I look to more hopeful outcomes.\u00a0 In this case, it is the off-chance, against-the-odds probability that even one acorn in the season of life survives, even thrives, to become a mighty oak.\u00a0 From a sheer statistical point of view, this could be viewed as the fodder of a cruel joke.\u00a0 But, alas, after a dark, cold winter, on occasion, as predictable as rare, the surviving sun teems with such fodder to produce a mighty oak which can outlive even the many seasonings on human life.\u00a0 Of course, you first have to be a nut to truly believe this.\u00a0 And if by some miracle you survive, even thrive, you will truly be for the birds…and even overly generous to those cranium-crushing squirrels squandering your babies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The acorns fall Like reign From above As the mighty yoke is broken Flailing to grasp the gravity of the situation Each won A tiny oak Tolled by nature If only Such nuts Can hold there ground And a void … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[503,360,294,428,462,635,388,493,500,359,486,552,379,132,354,658,291,94,425,375,19],"class_list":["post-1653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-abundance","tag-art","tag-awe","tag-experience","tag-fear","tag-future","tag-hope","tag-job","tag-joke","tag-life","tag-meaning","tag-muse","tag-nature","tag-normal","tag-perspective","tag-poems","tag-poet","tag-poetry","tag-probability","tag-scarcity","tag-toledo"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: The Awe Might He Acorn | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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