RE-INHABITING THE ISLANDS - The University of North Carolina at ...

35
where ―sea-people‖ and ―sea-tangle tendrils‖ meet the ―outward roil of lava‖ forms an
intersection between sea and land that is perennially liminal, hovering in a balance.
Rational models of ecology maximized efficiency of energy transfer to reduce imbalance
and waste. The linear models failed to take into account ―irrational‖ events like storms.
Ecologists like the Odums theorize that biomes balance the chaotic and linear forces of
life and death. By extension, eco-poetics balances antinomial forces of signification.
Snyder personifies this interstitial space as the island‘s horizon: ―lips, where you float /
clear, wave / with the subtle currents.‖ He uses intense metonymy to transcribe this image
within the ―cobalt speckled curling / mouth of a shako clam‖ (27). The focal position of
the narrator gradually resolves through each successive stanza. In the third stanza, the
verb swim invokes a ―sea-people,‖ but the phrasing is contracted: ―at low tide swim out
through a path in the coral.‖ Not until the fifth, does the poet remember how ―we hoed
and fished— / grubbing out bamboo runners / hammering straight blunt / harpoon heads
and spears.‖ The poem ends with an image of rest for the islanders. After they ―climb
delicately back up the cliff,‖ ―eat the melon and steamed sweet potato / from this
ground,‖ they remember collectively the hoeing and fishing, and finally ―sleep on the
cliff / float on the surf / nap in the bamboo thicket / eyes closed, / dazzled ears‖ (27). The
peace on which the poem ends is a picture of deep awareness. The negative image of
―closed eyes‖ is juxtaposed with ―dazzled ears‖ to describe a heightened state of
sensitivity to subtle truths unavailable to visual sight.
Regarding Wave is an important work for reading the aspects of island culture
that were crucial to Snyder‘s spiritual education. In this chapter, I analyzed ―Wave,‖
―Burning Island,‖ and ―Rainbow Body‖ in order to isolate a post-Tsimtsum moment in