Nature Portfolio Assignment

A Nature Poem

My Frog

Smaller than a human
Bigger than a caterpillar
Slimier than slime it self
Louder than a cricket
(5) Quieter than a lion’s roar
Yet smarter than most animals
Faster than a turtle
Tongue as long as an arrow
As patient as a monk
(10) As green as a leaf
As absorbent has a sponge
What more can I say about my frog?
Eyes as big as large pebbles
Legs as long as a pencil
(15) Skin as smooth as butter
Mouth as wide as the Atlantic
A Head as small as a golf ball
As jumpy as a slinky
As shy as a turtle
(20)As territorial as a badger
Sensitive Skin just like a newborn baby

As protective as a Mama bear of its cubbies
There is no coherent way I can describe a frog
Its leaps rather than walk
(25)It croaks when it has to
Yet people try to eschew it
What more can one ask of a little frog
It is everything it has to be
Are you everything you have to be?
(30) There’s no need to think about it; you already know.

The Most Beautiful 

The Awe-inspiring Sight

I had just woken up and I could hear the pilot saying, we were going to be landing in ten minutes. I looked out the window, and I was stunned by the view. It was breathtaking. The buildings were so high that I thought the plane was going to crash into them. I was scared and mesmerized at the same time. Everywhere looked so clean and new. It wasn't that I haven't seen a clean place before. However, I thought to myself, so this is America. At that moment, I understood why it was considered a big deal back home in Nigeria to come to the United States.  When the plane landed, there were so many people, and I couldn't help myself but stare. They all looked so different and majority of them were Caucasians. I had only seen one Caucasian person in my life and he was an albino.  At this moment, I thought all of them where albinos. As we left the airport and riding in the car, I still felt the view was amazing and the high buildings so intriguing. During the entire car ride, I couldn't look at anything else. The way the sun beamed upon the buildings made it look very polished. I was used to seeing sand at every corner of the road. However, there was no sand insight. It was all concrete. As we drove on the highway, I was surprised that I neither saw individuals selling items along the road nor a stall erupted just like it was back home. Everything looked so sophisticated. My first views of America were the most beautiful thing I could have ever imagined. So far, nothing compares to those views. I would love to stay in that moment forever. Every time I'm asked to describe how I felt when I arrived to the United States, these are the first things that appear in my mind, the way that view made me feel. The feeling is still indescribable and nothing can emulate the way those views made me feel. Whenever I travel with my parents, I start to feel nostalgic. It was definitely a beautiful moment in my life.

Word Count:362

Native American Creation Story

Patience and Monkeys

A Yoruba tale tells of how monkeys came to look like humans and why patience is important.
“I'm going to be human. I’m going to be human. By this time tomorrow, I'm going to be human.” The monkeys sang as they took the serum.  Wait a minute; I'm getting ahead of myself here. Allow me to indulge you with the foundation of the story. It all started a few days earlier.
As God was creating the earth, he was creating the animals as well. The monkeys didn't want to be animals so they asked God to change them into something else. God agreed and he wanted to create a new species. However, these species were going to be unlike any other. They where going to humans. So, God decided to give the monkeys a serum. God told the monkeys that they would need to wait seven days before they fully turned to Humans. He told them to use the serum every day for seven days but only once a day. The monkeys did as they were told for three days. Then, they started to change starting with their face and hands. After a while, few of the monkeys got impatient and wanted to turn into humans faster. So, they decided to take all of the serum at once.
“I bet you that if we take it all, we can turn into humans faster and don't have to stay like this for too long.” said one monkey
“ Yeah!” said another
“Wait, we're not suppose to take it all at once. Remember, it is supposed to be only once a day for seven days,” said a little monkey
“He was just saying that to say that. I bet he didn't mean it,” said the 1st monkey
Little did they know that the little monkey was speaking the truth.  Although some monkeys took the serum, some decided to be patient and do as they were told. Seven days later, the monkeys that listened turn into beautiful humans, while the rest didn’t change. The unchanged monkeys were surprised.
“Why didn't you change us God? We took the serum;” yelled one monkey.
“ You didn't listen, and you weren't patient. For those reasons, I didn't change you,” said God.
“ Then why do we still have similar characteristics of humans? Why don't you just take it all back?” Another monkey replied.
“ I want you and humanity to be reminded as to why patience is important. I want you to understand that without patience, the results might not be the best,” said God.


Word Count:428
Weather Experience

Exceptional Weather 

The myopic views of gloomy days and gray skies

Others not being able to understand its true beauty 

But I see it, there lays the feel of a sluggish day.

 Giving time for one to take it in and experience it. 

The mucky air made me breathe slow and precise.

I think to myself, why can't everyday be like this? 

As I walk through the park,

I could hear the carping complaints. 

Why can't they just try to experience it?

Everything seems to slow down

I could feel my shoes getting wet.

And the water is slowly dripping along my face.

I could hear the splatter of the water under my feet.

I felt the water was holding me back from running.

By far the best walk in the park yet

  

Response 

Nature
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The poem was good, understandable, and well written. The poem was trying to explain how letting go of materialistic things could help one experience nature better. Emerson talks about how being in nature is a great delight, and how he becomes contempt with nature. The poem was irrelevant to me. However, I understood the point Emerson was tying to get across. The ideas might still be relevant to someone or something else. Emerson’s ideas can still be applied with modern world. People should set aside time for themselves and experience nature the way Emerson did. Moreover, in this modern world, only a few are willing to take the time to experience nature. As a result, most disregard nature. People are occupied with materialistic things. Therefore, they can’t experience the true beauty of nature that Emerson describes. Emerson states, “Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man, or the harmony of both.”{p392}. As a matter of fact, nature is just been nature. It seems that people expect to experience nature nowadays by just sitting down and not doing anything. Moreover, Emerson says, in order to be part of nature, to actually experience it, nature and men have to work together in harmony.

Word Count: 212

Thanatopsis

This was quite an interesting poem about death. The poem actually makes you think about death and the feelings towards it. For me, death is something I don’t like think about. I know it’s going to happen, but I feel there is no reason to be thinking about it. As I read this poem, I started to think and question death. The poem explained the feelings people have about death. They ponder if anyone is going to remember them or if their absence is even going to matter. The first time I read this poem, it absolutely made no sense to me. However, discussing it in class clarified the poem in the simplest manner for me. I felt the poem was a guidebook to death. The poem explains death’s inevitability, and how sooner or later, it comes to every one. The author finds death, which is also natural, to be something that has to be experienced. It goes further to point out that rather than fight it, people should try to enjoy nature and life before the inevitable happens.  The author also states an interesting quote, he says,

“Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish 

Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down 

With patriarchs of the infant world,—with kings, 

The powerful of the earth,—the wise, the good, 

Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, 

All in one mighty sepulcher. The hills”

The idea that even when we are gone, we are still here. We are still part of the world. We are still part of nature. The authors ideas are very much relevant because death is still around, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon.

Word Count: 280

Spectacle of Great Beauty

By John Wesley Powell

“The glories and the beauties of form, color, and sound unite in the Grand Canyon” is a well-written piece. The way the author described the canyon I could see, hear, and feel the canyon. The author painted an image of immense beauty. I liked it, and I want to go see this spectacle of beauty myself. Moreover, I’m still not sure. The author describes what a beautiful experience he had, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to have the same experience. I can’t see the Canyon the same way the author saw it. The view is always going to be ever changing along with each individual’s perspective. This shows how nature is always changing and never consistent. The idea that nature is always changing is still very relevant today. An example is when someone sees a rainbow, they might think it is the most beautiful aspect of nature. Another might see it and wonder why it is relevant. I see something and you see something else. It’s just the way that nature occurs. If I ever have get the chance to go see the Grand Canyon, I want to know if my views will be very similar or differ drastically.

Word Count: 201

Walden

By Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau is basically telling how he lives a simple life, and how he thinks that everyone should the same. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”[p.410] This poem was quite confusing at some points. Thoreau says how he likes to imagine that he is living somewhere else than his original location. Then, after a while, it’s not as clear to which part of the story was his imagination and which part is reality. Aside from that, the poem was understandable as to the reasons why he wants to live simple. He gives some convincing explanation as to the reason for his simple life. When he talked about the railroads, which is something that really upsets him, he talked about the fact that people use railroads only because it is there. If it wasn't there, we wouldn't be using it.  This is similar with the concept of phones today and how everyone thinks that they have to have the latest and greatest gear. People were still alive when phones did not exist. So, the notion that everyone needs a phone to survive is simply flawed.      

Word Count: 221

The Tide

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Reading this poem for the first time, I thought to my self, “okay. So it’s talking about the sea and people traveling”. I had no idea that it was about death. Then, I thought to myself, how is it about death? The poem has no word that indicates a death or someone dying. So, I reread the poem and sought help in deeper understanding of it. The author seemed to be explaining what happens when and after someone dies. Things go on just like how the tide rises and falls. Even though someone is dead, it doesn't stop doing what it’s meant to do.

 “The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamps and neigh. As the hostler calls:
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls”

Yes, people might grief for a moment, but just like the tides, they have to keep going, keep living their lives, and doing what they want to do. The author’s ideas are still relevant, and the tides have never ceased stop just because some one died. Life doesn’t stop expect for the individual which death has fell upon. Moreover, if life stopped every time someone died, there wouldn’t be life. This doesn’t apply to the modern world. For example, if one of the prototypes for an iPhone company doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean that Apple will shut everything down and stop working, No, Apple starts over and keep coming up with other ideas. My takeaway from the author is that life goes on, and we must go on with it.

Word Count: 267

Response to Essays

In one aspect, Walking by Henry David Thoreau, The Divine Soil by John Burroughs, and The American Forests by John Muir are all about the same subject. The American Forests takes a more religious route while the others are kind of in-between. In the American forest, John Muir words make me think that he is taking a more religious path to his reasons for embracing nature. John Muir says, “The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted.” And he continues on to talk about how man destroyed such a beautiful forest. I began to understand the point he was trying to convey. Man vs. Nature, and it seems Man might have just won this one. According to me, the most logical statement was when he said, “Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries since Christ’s time - and long before that - God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools, - only Uncle Sam can do that.” The Divine Soil is very similar to The American Forest because it also talks about Heaven and the bigger picture. John Burroughs talks about the spiritual, the creator, and the universe. Thoreau’s paper was more simple and straight to the point. He explained how people just have to stand and look. Then, they will notice that nature is right there at their feet. All they have to do is just walk, not walk to exercise, but walking to experience that itself. A line that stood out to me from all the readings was from The Divine Soil.It says,“One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand - to see that heaven lies about us here in this world …” I feel like this line explains everything Henry David Thoreau, John Burroughs, and John Muir are trying to say. That is the lesson they were all trying to get across, which is we have to learn to see everything else and not just what’s right in front of us. We have to go one step further, see the divine and experience it.