Not So Flowery Poetry (Draft)

In the year 2015 I was introduced to what would become one of my favorite podcasts of all time. Set in a small desert community Welcome to Nightvale is the story of a strange little town where strange is the norm and all that is too be expected is that you can never really predict what will happen next.

When my cousin first explained to me about the show and how it was a series of broadcasts from a community radio station in a fictional town I thought it was strange, and it is. But from the first episode I was hooked, the stories were goofy and engaging and the host has a wonderful way of presenting and expressing himself. Needless to say I have been listening ever since and I love it. In addition to giving updates on the town and residence of Nightvale however the show often has sections of poetry and music as well. I have always loved the poems and ideas that have been presented on the show so recently I was rereading some of my favorites when I stumbled across this particular piece that was submitted by a fan and while it was never aired on the show I fell in love with it. The short piece is entitled Nympholepsy and reads as follows;

There once  was a time when man

claimed the jungle as his garden

... and paradise died

So man reconstructed a new garden

out of concrete and steel

... and earth wept

In this man-made garden

there was little room for flora and fauna

brother turned against brother

and sister turned upon sister

The garden stank of death and hate

... and earth wept

within this diseased and dying concrete jungle

balance became unbalanced

man's garden became rife with nympholepsy

Soon callousness and greed became the paean of humanity

And the descent from grace became a nuclear race

to defile yet even another garden

I was struck by so much in this poem and I have since reread it at least one hundred times. The message, the religious themes and powerful ending sentences struck me really hard. It really compelled me to think about the first garden that man was given, the garden of Eden. This poem is a statement of the imperfection of man that has been present since the very beginning, and the terrible habit that we as humans have of ruining things that have been given to us. 

I thought it was so interesting how much the author focuses on the hatred of humanity. They paint a vivid picture of violence and killing in the setting of a garden, which by nature is full of life and peace. In a way its kind of a display of the fact that everything must have its opposite. The garden that man inherited is painted here as being lush and beautiful, only enhancing that which it touches. And in stark contrast man his painted here has being terrifying and destructive, only ruining that which it touches and never stopping to consider the consequences. While I think this is a bit of an extreme view I do have to agree that we do not hesitate to destroy something in order to build something new. I like the way this message made me think about how that sacrifice has to be made whenever anyone wants to create anything. 

It was a really powerful prompt for me to stop and think about my part in all this, after all I do live in and contribute to the garden of concrete and steel described here. The wording is very powerful and the image of a weeping earth really upsets me and I dont want to be someone that has played a part in making earth weep. Unfortunately this fall from grace is so ingrained in us as humans that perhaps we hardly notice the impact that we make anymore. The path that we are headed down is as a result not the greatest, but I was very grateful to the author of this poem for helping me to take more notice of the impact that I have in this fragile garden that we live in.