2nd Special Entry: "Prayer" by Mary Oliver

“Prayer” is a short 55 word poem written by Mary Oliver. Although the reading is quite small, the meaning is rather extravagant. The poem is as follows:

It doesn’t have to be
The blue iris, it could be
Weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
Small stones; just
Pay attentions, then patch

A few words together and don’t try
To make them elaborate, this isn’t
A contest but the doorway

Into thanks, and a silence in which
Another voice may speak.

I am interpreting this text because it is so meaningful. It’s one of those pieces you can read periodically and get a different interpretation each time. At first glance, the poem looks exceptionally easy. But once the poem is read more than once, the reality of the poems depth arises. Prayer is such a major topic with many opinions. This poem takes a very broad, controversial subject and narrows it down to its true, simplistic origin.

The opening lines of the poem, “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris…” holds plenty of depth and meaning. But if you’re not florist or a flower lover, you probably wouldn’t know what a “blue iris” is. It is one gorgeous looking flower, an attention getter, eye candy, something that would draw people in with its beauty. It’s truly an extravagant piece of nature’s art. In this poem, Oliver uses “blue iris”, like much of the poem, as a metaphor. I believe she is saying prayer doesn’t always have to be beautiful; it doesn’t have to be something that attracts. Even though we are communicating with the Almighty, our words shouldn’t be covered in a façade of allurement. I don’t think she is saying prayer can never be beautiful. In prayer, we should give praise and the result is beautiful. I do believe she is saying that we shouldn’t get caught up in solely praying just to give praise. In doing so, we leave out one of the points of prayer, giving your thoughts, cares, and worries to Christ. Giving you’re inner most thoughts and feeling (good or bad) to Christ is so important. It’s a very important interpretation; prayer doesn’t always have to beautiful and perfect.

Oliver makes this point very clear with the next few lines, “…it could be weeds in a vacant lot…” Weeds are often unattractive, not wanted, and an annoyance to all its occupants. A vacant lot is, vacant, empty, and void. I believe Oliver is saying prayer is also a time to give Christ those annoyances and unwanted circumstances, especially when life feels lifeless and void. Bottle up emotions, no matter how unattractive, need to be released and dealt with. People often forget that there allowed to come to Christ with their issues. Concerning prayer, there should be a balance between its blue irises’s and weed field lots. One without the other leads to a lop-sided prayer life.

Oliver continues and states that prayer also could be “… a few small stones; just pay attention then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate…” In prayer, especially in front of large groups of people, Christians can tend to showcase their prayers into a long, drawn out production. I believe Oliver is saying we loose the meaning of prayer when we make prayer a performance; an elaborate group of holy words with intentions of impressing an audience. Prayers are meant to be meaningful, a time to focus, to reflect, and regurgitate the thoughts within the mind. I believe that’s what she means by “just pay attention”. Don’t loose you’re meaningfulness in the act of performing prayer. It could be something small with a powerful punch, much like this poem. If a persons prays for four hours long, that’s doesn’t the person is better than the person who prayer for only four minutes. The person who ‘prayed’ for four hours could have been uttering nonsense the whole time or vise versa. I believe God looks at the intent of the heart, if you’re really paying attention to what you’re saying, and if you mean it.

Moving forward, the poem continues and says, “…and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest…” Why do humans have the habit of making almost everything a competition? Why do Christians (while praying) tend to feel the need to out-pray others before us in prayer circles? Where in scripture does it speak of prayer in a contest format? I can tell you scriptures never speak of competitive praying, it’s not meant to be contest. If prayer was some sort of a contest, I believe it would destroy its purity. Humanistic competitiveness would get in the way and destroy a wholesome and holy ritual. To go further, why, in prayer, do people speak of everything but forget to give thanks?

“…this isn’t a contest, but a doorway into thanks…” There is so much to be thankful for, especially in the USA. The United States of America represent freedom, freedom we should be thankful for. Jesus also died so we could have a chance, a choice to follow Him, and be with Him in eternity. Beyond that, I believe Oliver wants the reader to understand that prayer should be action of gratitude and thankfulness. Prayer is the doorway into showing the Father your earnest affection of oblige. I believe this is one of the most important interpretations in the piece as whole. Not just to be thankful, but to also give you’re thanks to God. You never know what you have until it’s gone.

“... and a silence in which another voice may speak…” Some people interpret this last line literally, that you will hear an audible voice. I don’t think Oliver even wants her readers to focus on the ‘voice’. Focusing on hearing sounds during prayer brings distraction. Plus, it’s not meant to be taken literally; I believe it’s to be taken metaphorically like the rest of the poem, symbolizing God’s presence being with you in your silence. I believe Oliver wants us to focus on praying in silence. How often are we still, motionless, in the silence of an intimate prayer time? Not often, the other half of prayer is being silent before the heavenly father.

From Theatre to the Movie Screen

For many years, musicals and plays have been brought onto the ‘big screen’. Some adaptions of these theatrical productions are done with taste and excellency, others, not so much. I believe one of the best movie adaption of theatrical play I’ve seen is “Doubt”. The story line is enticing and engages the audience throughout the movie, there is no weak actor throughout the film, and each actor gives a superb performance. Now, I might be a little bias, I’ve never seen the play “Doubt” performed. But I have seen both versions (on film & stage) of “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. All I can say, there are dramatic differences. The movie is done well, in fact went on and won numerous awards, but it did, in my opinion, become a bit unbelievable, unlike the actual musical. The only movie adaption I’ve seen stay true to it’s original theatrical material is “Romeo + Juliet”, a modern movie adaption of the famous Shakespearean play.

Readers might be wondering, what all of this has to with an Intro to Literature course. Well, it does. Theatre, plays, musicals, whatever you want to call it, it’s all literature. In my literature class we’ve been looking into a theatrical piece called, Waiting For Godot”. It’s a very bizarre piece, to say the least. Reading it, can make you bit confused. They’re many interpretations. But watching the piece, as a movie, in class, brought semi-understanding to its madness.

Watching theatre come alive is so much fun, to watch the movie version of “Waiting for Godot” was indeed a treat. Seeing how the actors created their characters ( off of so little guidance in the script) and delivered their lines made me think differently about the piece as a whole. It’s one thing to read play, but another to see it. I believe the movie adaption of this play brought a lot of clarification, understanding and liveliness too the piece. I enjoyed thoroughly.

“Waiting for Godot”

In our last class discussion we discussed everything that is “Waiting for Godot”. I found this class discussion time the most interesting simply because it’s such a different, unique piece. First Off, this story is not like many things I have read before. This piece is extremely sporadic and random. There never really seems to be one singular meaning or train of thought. It’s not like a usual piece of theatre, there’s not much blocking, character description, or any sort of real direction. So it took a lot of focus and attention to draw out meaning. Through all the confusion and mumble I can up with some sort of theme.

There seems to be a lot of ‘waiting’ in the play; waiting for the unknown. Going through the text I believe one of the points Samuel Beckett, the author, was trying to portray was to stop waiting and make life happen. The main characters were waiting the WHOLE play and were notable getting agitated. They got NOTHING accomplished. In life, you cannot wait around for your life to start, for your big break to happen; you have to make it happen. Or in other words, don’t let life control you, you have take control of your life.

Now, I am not saying that is the concrete theme of this whole play and everybody else in wrong. There are many interpretation of the piece and any one of them can be correct. I believe a lot of what we draw out of literature is based off of who we are, what we’ve been through, and where we are from. I think its great that there are so many different interpretations and thoughts about this piece. It shows that we are all different and not everybody fits in to one mold.

Changing the Context/Mood = A New Story

During class time, we practiced different exercises concerning our readings, in specific, Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. After reading a couple of scenes the class was asked to act out scenes in our groups as written, then we were asked to change the mood of the scenes. After the process was complete we were asked to answer questions based on the different moods and whether is changes the meaning/context of the original text.

Being an actor, I already knew the answer before the exercise was performed, although, unlike my classmates, many didn’t know the outcome so I tried to explain. If a scene is written as performed it holds certain meaning, when changed, the meaning changes. For example, if a scene is written in a somber and dark attitude it is to be performed that way. But, if the producer or director wanted to change the original mood and make the dark play light and happy, it would change the meaning and give the dialog comic relief. To go further, the recent production I was in wan entitled, “Jane Eyre: The Musical” at Southeastern University. The musical is written in a dark eerie tone with the music to match, although it does have a strong message of hope, faith, and trust in God, if you were to change the music and the context in which it was written it would change the meaning of the play.

I do believe plays should keep the mood that the playwright intended. I am not against experimenting, but it is to a certain degree. Theatre is such a beautiful art on one should not cater to what the audience wants but deliver the true of the art and then, maybe, modern audiences will develop and appreciation of true art and literature on stage.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

This short film was very interesting to say the least. At first, I though I was watching a bunch of malarkey, but as the film progressed, I realize there was a reason for everything I was watching.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, is not a sing-along, it is a comedic musical with serious undertones and meaning. Dr. Horrible is a man smitten by love of the beautiful Penny. For the longest time he has seen her in the laundry mat, but no words (that the human mind can comprehend) seem to ever come out.

It is known from the very beginning that Dr. Horrible is a villain and wants to be the best of the best. In order to do so, he has to kill someone. The Doctor prefers to kill, his arch nemesis, the extremely rude and sarcastic Captain Hammer. In one incident, Penny is in danger and although Dr. Horrible does save her, Hammer gets the credit and the two fall in love. This fuels the Doctors rage which gives him even more of a reason to kill the Captain
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In the final scene, Captain Hammer get’s the credit for opening a homeless shelter, a task Penny has been hoping would pass. The Doctor comes in and freezes hammer with his “Death Ray” and causes havoc among the town hall homeless celebration. His gun back fires, explodes, and kills Penny. He finally get’s what he wants, the recognition, and respect, but it means nothing because he killed the wrong person, his true love.

The film was very intriguing because it showed the villain, Dr. Horrible, as the protagonist the whole time. If you weren’t paying attention to what he was saying, you wouldn’t realize it until the end. It’s wasn’t hard to make the mistake either; Captain Hammer was a horrible hero and didn’t deserve to be respected.

My Own Lake Bonny

I was not enthused at all my getting this assignment. Not at all, I am an extremely busy person with no extra time. I am working on the show, “Jane Eyre: The Musical” at Southeastern and last week every rehearsal ended around 10 or 11 o’clock, leaving the cast exhausted from continuous rehearsing. The weekend following, the cast and I spent many hours taking down the set (that we previously built) in the workshop, loading it into the truck, and then unloading into the Polk Theatre to build it again so we can practice for the rest of the week until we open for the pre-show Thursday. Then last night, Monday we spent around 6 to 7 hours (until mid-night) rehearsing and setting up the stage. This is not counting the other rehearsal’s I have for other projects during the day or any of the many papers due. It was as if I had no free time, no free time at. I currently don’t even have the time or gas money to get groceries for myself.

At this point, you readers out there probably think I’m a big complainer, but I am not, I just want people to understand my circumstances. So, obviously I didn’t have the time or gas money to go to Lake Bonny and when I did it was too late at night. So I created my own Lake Bonny, in a quiet place, in my dorm room. It’s not what the assignment required, but it was the best I could do.

Sitting there in the early morning, reading short passages from, “The State of the Planet”, was so calming. It was so nice just to sit, be quiet, and read. When your life feels like your going non-stop, these moment of peace and reflection mean so much. It was beautiful. I felt the need to be honest in this blog post and I hope that can be respected. With all this said, it does not mean I won’t be going to Lake Bonny. I just got a check in the mail from my church (I am a fill in youth-pastor for the youth group every Saturday night I’m not performing) so I will be going this Friday morning. If reading fragments of poems in the peace of dorm room gave me joy and solitude, I am excited to see what’s going to happen when I am actually surrounded by nature, experiencing poetic nature in all it’s glory.

Prayer

In my intro into literature class this past week we read a poem entitled “Prayer” written by Mary Oliver. I have to say this is poem has been my one of favorites. The poem is not long, it’s very simple, yet it’s extremely powerful!

I work with many youth groups. One thing that the youth struggle with the most is understanding prayer. They’re not sure how to pray, if it works, and what it’s really all about. When I was growing up people gave numerous ways how I should pray. I couldn’t decide on which version was best. I believe the Christian community has gotten caught in the ‘how to’. It seems we aren’t focused enough of the ‘doing’ and don’t truly realize the meaningfulness and the power behind prayer. And if my accusation is incorrect, I know for a fact we haven’t communicated the importance of prayer to younger generations. Which make me wonder if the generations before me understood it at all.

I love this poem because it devours the confusion associated with prayer and exemplifies the honesty and simplicity of it. The poem show how prayer isn’t about using extravagant words, sounding holy, or competing, “… patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest…” It’s such a simply line, yet it’s immensely powerful!

Moving on, the poem continues and show’s the reader to give thanks. I myself often forget how blessed I am. I didn’t have to be born in this country or have the life I have been given. For the simply fact I am on American soil gives me thousands of reason why I should be thankful. Oliver also touches on a subject that I have failed to remember; being silent. People wonder why they can’t hear/feel God, I say maybe it’s because we aren’t silent. “…this isn’t a contest but t he doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.”