Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Marge Piercy’s "The Influence Coming into Play: The Seven of Pentacles" is a contemplative and richly layered poem that uses gardening as a metaphor for personal growth, connection, and the patient nurturing of relationships and endeavors. The poem, reflecting the tarot card it references, emphasizes the importance of persistence, care, and the understanding that meaningful progress often occurs slowly and beneath the surface.

The poem begins with a vivid image: "Under a sky the color of pea soup / she is looking at her work growing away there / actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans / as things grow in the real world, slowly enough." This sets a scene of a gardener observing the fruits of her labor, encapsulating the gradual and deliberate nature of growth. The comparison to grapevines and pole beans underscores the idea that while growth can be vigorous, it is also slow and requires time.

Piercy details the various efforts required for successful gardening: "If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water, / if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food, / if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars, / if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees, / then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock." These lines emphasize the numerous conditions and actions needed to nurture plants, paralleling the nurturing of personal and professional projects. The phrase "their own internal clock" highlights the natural, uncontrollable pace of growth, reminding us that outcomes are not always immediately visible.

The metaphor extends to the idea that "Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground. / You cannot tell always by looking what is happening. / More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet." This speaks to the hidden, foundational work that supports visible success. The roots of a tree, like the unseen efforts behind achievements, are crucial yet often overlooked.

Piercy continues with the imperative to "Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet. / Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree. / Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden. / Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar." These instructions advocate for subtle, persistent effort and adaptability. The earthworm’s quiet work, the creeper’s persistence, and the squash plant’s expansive growth all serve as models for how to approach life’s challenges and opportunities.

The poem encourages building genuine, lasting connections: "Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses. / Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving. / Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in, / a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us / interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs." This imagery of a dense, interconnected wilderness symbolizes a rich, complex network of relationships and endeavors that, while perhaps chaotic to outsiders, is deeply meaningful and supportive to those within it.

Piercy’s call to "Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen: / reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in" reinforces the importance of self-acceptance and continuous effort in building a fulfilling life. The idea that self-liking can follow the act of living positively and reaching out suggests a proactive approach to personal happiness.

The closing lines, "This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always, / for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting, / after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes," bring the metaphor full circle. They acknowledge the cyclical nature of effort and reward. Just as gardeners experience seasons of planting and harvesting, so too do we undergo periods of hard work followed by the enjoyment of its fruits.

"The Influence Coming into Play: The Seven of Pentacles" by Marge Piercy is a rich, instructive meditation on patience, effort, and the interconnectedness of life’s endeavors. Through the extended metaphor of gardening, Piercy offers wisdom on how to nurture growth, build lasting connections, and ultimately, reap the rewards of sustained and thoughtful effort. The poem serves as a reminder that while growth may be slow and often hidden, it is continuous and culminates in a harvest of our making.

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