Pretending

I generally tend to leave thoughts of God and design out of my poems, so the idea of musing on such topics is fairly new to me. However, I recently wrote a poem called “Pretending” which addresses these very things (metaphorically speaking). The poem goes like this:

What creature is this in front of me?

I have never seen the likes of it before

It can’t be a snail, or an ant

For interpretations of both sit

On either side of the imposter

The shame of it, pretending to be

Something it’s not

But isn’t that what I’m doing, too?

Pretending to be a bug, sitting under

This huge metal flower

I have to crane my neck to see its center

A huge red eye, looking out over me

I could kid myself, and these metal insects

Tell us all that the flower is watching over us

Sheltering us and guiding our paths

But no

The flower is looking far beyond us

Admiring much more complex works of art

The turn in this poem is from the description of the insect, to a reflection on the self, and then to a metaphor of the flower as God. (Perhaps this isn’t the idea we’re looking for, but it gets the job done.) This allows the reader to form their own interpretations of God’s perception of the human race, and vice versa. As a poet, this is also a chance to rebut, or to agree. Challenging religion and perception has always been prime poetic material, as the topic can never be exhausted. Everyone has their own, ever-changing opinion, and so the poetic prospective serves as a medium for musing over these ideas.

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