What Animal Would You Be?
Photo by Zdenek Machacek on Unsplash
Fantasy, Part 3
Salutations, Seized readers! A word of advice as you read the poem below: No matter how the first half hits you, read this one to the end. Trust me on this.
When I Am A Hummingbird I love two dogs, even when they’re killing/ a baby possum near the columbines,/ shaking the varmint/ until the death squeal chokes to a gargle,/ and both dogs stand before the bloody marsupial/ nosing it to move,/ because that’s Nature, right?/ (And whom did I just ask whether that was right?)/ (And what’s a moral quandary for a possum?)/ I love the dog who leans,/ matter-of-fact in her need,/ and the big smile of the small Pit Bull./ But when I am a hummingbird, finally,/ I will beat my wings/ eighty times per second,/ thousands of seconds/ and eighty thousands and thousands/ of my splendiferous beating wings,/ faster than all of the eighty thousand/ beautiful things in the world,/ and no one will stop me or catch me/ or take my picture,/ I will be too fast,/ and I will dive into the meat/ of the possum/ and beat there,/ the mean, bloody thing alive again./ -Alan Michael Parker This imaginative poem is on the Academy of American Poets website.
Might this possum be thirsty? Photo by Kurt Anderson on Unsplash
Fantasy And When To Be A Hummingbird Hero
The fun of reading and writing the fantastic is how this endeavor temporarily removes us from our cares and the tedium of our lives. Fantasy can turn our thoughts to classics like Alice in Wonderland, fairy tales, Harry Potter, the Percy Jackson series, and Tolkien’s amazing tome, The Lord of the Rings. As a young girl, I was introduced by my mother to Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies, George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind, and Paulus and the Acornmen by Jean Dulieu.
What fantasies do you enjoy reading or watching?
In "When I Am A Hummingbird," poet Alan Michael Parker doesn't write generally about what it would be like to be a hummingbird. Instead, he provides the specific context of a violent situation to tell us when the poem’s speaker would become a hummingbird, how he would save a poor possum’s life.
The speaker embraces each animal he writes about in this poem of loving confession. He says of the canines killing the “marsupial,” “I love the dog who leans, / matter-of-fact in her need, / and the big smile of the small Pit Bull. //” We may be revolted by the violent act that begins his poem and his love for the two murderous dogs, but, by the end, we realize that the speaker cares about the "varmint" being killed.
Can you relate to the speaker’s need to defend his positive feelings for the dogs?
Clever moves: This North Carolina poet draws us into the poem by saying the outrageous, that even when the dogs are committing a murderous act, the speaker loves them. This shocks us, and because we want to understand, we keep reading. Parker brings his readers and even God into a conversation, when, in the third stanza, the speaker justifies his love and asks for our approval: “because that’s Nature, right?” In choosing a capital N for “Nature,” Parker signifies a higher power. Asking questions in a poem is surprising and a way to hook our interest. If we weren’t paying attention before, we are now. Did we expect to be drawn into a philosophical discussion about loving murderous dogs? No.
This is a poem of surprises! Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash
The startling line, “But when I am a hummingbird, finally,” is where this poem begins to turn, and our eyes widen. Wait a minute, what? The word “finally” is a delightful choice. It’s as if the speaker has waited his entire existence for this transformation! For those familiar with the concept of reincarnation, this word may suggest that when he dies, he will “finally” become a hummingbird. Parker enjoys riffing with the word “eighty” which is in fact how fast hummingbird wings beat, “eighty times per second.” These stanzas are humorous and fun to read.
Great words for giggles: If we missed the humorous word “varmint” in the first stanza and the funny comparison of “big” and “small” with the Pit Bill in the fourth, Parker lays another one on us, the overdone version of “splendid”—”splendiferous” in the seventh stanza.
If you enjoy word play and descriptive, astonishing words, you may like poetry.
The biggest surprise arrives at the end. Now a hummingbird, the speaker swoops into the dying animal, and revives it. Parker is personifying the hummingbird, giving the bird the intelligence, will, and quick-thinking response to save the possum. What an imagination and what an apt bird image!
The Joy of Personification
According to the Academy of American Poets, “personification is the endowment of inanimate objects, animals, or abstract concepts with animate or human-living qualities.” While personification has been out of vogue in adult-oriented verse for some time, it is worth noting that this poem by Alan Michael Parker was selected by the acclaimed Academy of American Poets to be on the poets.org website.
Personification can deliver originality. Not only is it a fun technique to try, but when a writer can do it well, it gives the reader a different vantage point from which to visualize and interpret the poem. In this case, we see how much Parker’s speaker loves the possum. Suddenly, we are inside the dying creature with him as the magnificent hummingbird, watching his wings beat madly to resurrect the wild beast.
Try your hand at personification. Endow an animal, plant, weather, or an inanimate object such as a mixing bowl with a spoon (here, “Hey, Diddle Diddle” and “Beauty and the Beast” come to mind) with human qualities. Create a situation in which your personified subject saves the day or alternately, causes destruction. Techniques like personification can loosen your imagination, turn the ignition of your writing brain.
Share your writing in the Comments section.
Today’s Book Pick
elephants & butterflies: American Poets Continuum Series, No. 111 by Alan Michael Parker, BOA Editions, 2008.
I was fortunate to meet Alan Michael Parker years ago and to buy this whimsical and accessible book of his verse. Within the clever humor and original imagery of these poems, he considers important questions and the complexity of our human lives.