Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Simon J. Ortiz’s "Seed" is an introspective meditation on creativity, loss, and the existential reckoning of a poet who finds himself unable—or unwilling—to continue engaging with his craft. The poem follows Richard, a poet and professor, as he experiences a crisis of artistic identity, gradually detaching from the poetic impulse that once defined him. Through a progression of fragmented reflections, Ortiz explores the disconnect between artistic vision and reality, the weight of expectation, and the struggle between resignation and renewal.

The poem begins with an image of stillness and incomprehension: "He looked at the seed for a long time. His mind did not comprehend. It did not flower anymore. The seed was just a seed." This opening establishes a central metaphor—the seed, which traditionally symbolizes potential and growth, is here rendered inert, unable to transform in the speaker’s perception. The phrase "His mind did not comprehend" suggests a cognitive or spiritual blockage, an inability to engage with the symbolic richness that poetry requires. The finality of "It did not flower anymore" signals an emotional and intellectual exhaustion, a severance from creative vitality.

The speaker recalls that "She had said it was begonia." The mention of another person—possibly a student or a loved one—introduces an external perspective, someone who still sees life in the seed. Yet Richard’s inability to imagine the begonia’s colors—"Purple blossoms, rich yellow, supple orange, blue petals?"—underscores his loss of poetic vision. The question mark suggests uncertainty, as if he is grasping for images that no longer come naturally. The statement "The mind that made the seed bloom was always the poet. He was not the poet anymore." is a quiet resignation, marking the moment of realization that his poetic self has faded.

The second section shifts to a precise moment of decision: "When he decided to give up poetry, it was one o’clock in the afternoon. It was a Tuesday, and he stood in the middle of a corridor trying to think of where to go, where he was to be." The specificity of time and place contrasts with the existential uncertainty he experiences—he knows the external details but not his own direction. The repetition of "where" emphasizes his disorientation. His realization that he will "quit trying to write poetry, the seed he thought he carried with him all his life" suggests that poetry was once intrinsic to his identity, but now it feels like an illusion, something he had convinced himself was permanent.

His reflection on his career reinforces his disillusionment: "Here he was at forty-five years old still trying to show he was the one who would show such life in images no one could deny. There were no images." The frustration is evident—he had dedicated himself to the art of making vivid images, but now he finds nothing to express. The mention of "graduate seminar students stumbling into H-103 every Tuesday afternoon" paints a picture of routine and academic detachment. The reference to "The Grim Section" and Tennyson’s supposed dark side suggests that even literature itself is being distorted, turned into something heavier than it actually is. The observation that "It wasn’t true, but he made it true." reflects his disillusionment with both poetry and academia—the idea that meaning can be forced rather than discovered.

The moment of finality is abrupt: "So at one o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon, Richard decided, No more." The starkness of this statement, set apart in the text, underscores the gravity of his decision. His departure from Hallmer Hall—"He could have walked through walls, ether walls, and star-sheened walls, and even solid walls when he left Hallmer Hall without looking back."—suggests that he is mentally disengaging from his former life. The mention of "ether walls" and "star-sheened walls" retains a faint trace of poetic imagination, but these images are fleeting, secondary to his determination to abandon poetry.

The third section presents Richard at First Elk River, a place that symbolizes transition. The river, an archetypal image of movement and change, stands in contrast to his internal stagnation: "The stream of water was not like any he had ever stood by." This signals that he is encountering something unfamiliar, something beyond his prior experience. His recollection of being called "the gentlest, subtlest, most sincere one" by his parents, professors, and wives suggests that he has lived under the weight of others’ expectations, fulfilling a role rather than discovering his own truth.

The mention of the Buddha—"Sure he took advantage of the Buddha when he said, Why not. And laughed, and they smiled and said to others, That’s what he says."—introduces an element of detachment. He played along with the persona others assigned to him, embracing wisdom with an ironic distance. But now, beside the river, he faces a different kind of reckoning: "Unsteadily he was the angle of water turning." This suggests that he is in flux, beginning to align himself with movement rather than stillness. His recollection of a Chinese poet who said "nothing turns without meaning to" reinforces this shift—where before he was disconnected, now he is beginning to accept transition, even if it is uncertain.

In the final section, Richard recalls a forgotten funeral story: "There was a story he liked that no one else remembered." The reference to "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is uncertain—he cannot remember whether it was from that novel or from another Irish writer. This uncertainty reflects his fading connection to literary memory, yet it also speaks to the nature of stories themselves—fluid, sometimes misremembered, yet still carrying emotional resonance.

The most poignant moment comes when he recalls the fishing trips: "They had not forgotten, but it was best to forget, so they forgot. But the fishing they didn’t forget; at least the memory of fishing they didn’t forget." This layered phrasing highlights the selective nature of memory—some things are deliberately erased, but others persist unconsciously. The memory of "the flowing current as he watched the trout swim deftly through the current shifting always" reinforces the river as a metaphor for change, for life moving forward whether he resists it or not.

The final lines bring the poem full circle: "He did not want to be a poet anymore. He did not want to be swayed by the lilt of a bird somewhere beyond his view as he reached his hand toward the current shifting everything away, and he did not want to know the seed that stood before his eyes as a tiny monument of new life, the beginning that would flower by his seeing." His rejection of poetry is reaffirmed—not just poetry itself, but the entire poetic way of seeing. He resists the urge to be moved by beauty, by nature’s quiet inspiration. Yet, the image of the seed remains, standing as "a tiny monument of new life." This closing suggests that, despite his resistance, the potential for renewal lingers. The seed exists whether he acknowledges it or not, and the question remains—will he return to it? Will he allow it to flower again?

Ortiz’s free verse and fluid transitions between thought and memory mirror the speaker’s internal struggle. The shifts between past and present, certainty and doubt, emphasize the tension between letting go and holding on. The poem does not offer resolution but leaves the reader with a sense of quiet inevitability—despite Richard’s insistence that he is done with poetry, the world around him continues to offer images, to move, to invite him back.

"Seed" is ultimately a meditation on artistic crisis and the burden of self-expectation. It captures the exhaustion that can come from a lifetime of trying to translate experience into poetry, the disillusionment that arises when meaning feels forced rather than discovered. Yet, beneath the weariness, there remains a subtle, unspoken possibility: that even when poetry is abandoned, life continues to offer seeds of renewal, waiting to bloom.

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