Oceanic

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Her poems invoke a sense of connectedness… Nezhukumatathil weaves meditations on parenting and family-making among her lavishly rendered evocations of flora and fauna… Nezhukumatathil’s voice is consistent in its awe.” — Publishers Weekly Reading Nezhukumatathil’s poems is a practice in keenly observing life’s details. The poet writes with a romantic sensibility about a world saturated with a deep sense of loss. Recommended for all poetry readers, especially those interested in ecopoetry.” — Library Journal Desire is also the main current of The European Eel, Steve Ely’s lush recreation of the incredible transatlantic migration eels undertake to their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea. Little is known about their ocean-going lives, but in Ely’s telling it becomes a testimony to life’s irrepressibility. A female eel will gradually consume her own body to fuel the journey, “reducing herself to the seed of her species’ future”. It culminates in an ecstatic account of eel sex, coiling in billowing clouds of golden milt and ova, “sparks from the cornucopian flame / of Archaea’s unkillable, dark pleroma”. In such moments, Nezhukumatathil unabashedly embraces the –ic of her collection’s title and insists that “oceanic,” properly understood, far surpasses a definition as “of or relating to the ocean.” Invoking the “boundless” and the “limitless,” Nezhukumatathil sets out a simple, yet profound, argument about our relations with the natural world: the more we feel the ocean’s embrace, the sooner we sense its particular “hum” everywhere. This word mat of under-the-sea adjectives will be a perfect complement to this resource, helping to build a broader range of vocabulary.

Poetry, both old and new, not only reveals the oceans’ uncanny beauty, it also frames the monstrous dilemmas of rising seas, pollution, and declining biodiversity.

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The ocean’s grandeur and beauty are breathtaking. From scientists and chemists to explorers and mariners, the ocean and its complete ecology captivate, enthrall, and delight multitudes of people all over the world. Fig. 3. While the original manuscript of this poem is lost, the above fragment (AC 169, about 1880?) is extant.

The ocean has had a very significant role in poetry since the dawn of poetry itself. It’s easy to see why. The ocean — both wild and calm, dangerous and beautiful — is a made up of contradictions and mystery. Ocean poems can not only be dedicated to capturing the heart of sea, but to metaphors for love and trauma, among many other things. More than that, the ocean has played a role in the history of many cultures, making it a setting that is both intimately personal, and vastly universal.European Eels, as mentioned in Steve Ely’s poem about their transatlantic migration to their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy It is likely that children will find it easier to write about certain topics (like the creatures that live under the sea, for example) in a rhyming poem as the rhyming words will lead them to think of other words that are associated with these words and rhymes. Ocean has also found its place in several poems as well. Here are some of those simple ocean poems. 1. The Ocean Let us now go through some poems on ocean in English. These poems about the sea remind us that oceans have an impact on our lives and livelihoods of our loved ones, no matter how far off the beach we reside. 1. The Ocean Take a look at some of our other poetry writing frames and templates to use with your children in class or at home:

Gorgeously written, this poem begins by describing the water as unraveling velvet. Fanning describes how the water fills the earth, but never fully encompasses it. Water is always changing its shape, filling yet fleeting. It is everywhere, yet never within your control. Time and time again, nature has proven that the deepest parts of the ocean are more serene and holds a lot of secrecy, that’s why people dive deep to have a taste of these mysteries. How wonderful to watch a writer who was already among the best young poets get even better!” —Terrance Hayes only my mind is not present and I can't control where I go, I can't remember where I go, im mindless. Im walking on an ocean. An ocean of happiness I can't baptize myself in. The ocean gets more wet except the ocean is filled with sweat, sweat from running from all my problems. Exhaustion fills my body. That is the pure moment I realize I am asleep, the wetness is beads of sweat on my forehead from the 16th night terror this week.More than that, the ocean has played an important part in many civilizations’ histories, making it a location that is both incredibly personal and massively universal. Poems about the ocean, unsurprisingly, come in a variety of forms. ‎ Oceanic is a generous, romantic, and ambitious look at the different stages of life, and how we experience the love and wonder that lead us to become more fully realized and compassionate as we grow each decade… [it’s] Nezhukumatathil’s most cohesive collection to date, as she takes her prior preoccupations and dissects them in new ways that invite, as all of her work does, a sense of marvel and astonishment.” — Tin House If your class enjoyed this metaphor poem exercise, why not try one of our other recommended resources to round out your lesson plan? The ocean has played an important part in poetry from its inception, which explains why there are so many ocean poems in literature. It’s simple to understand why. ‎ Where they want / to claim the sea for roads,” she writes in No Fishing on the Point, “She’s/I’ve watched the currents, / […] / which bring […] feasts, and famine.”