I selected this poem from among my ten-minute fast writes. I hope it is not found too cryptic or pointless, but it at least serves as a page in a journal for me to keep track of things. The poem deals both with things we evolved with since a single cell and things with a component of nurture and how those things affect us. It occurred to me in writing the poem that education is influenced by culture and often becomes the practice of suppressing inherent human nature. This idea got set me to pondering the definition and value of human nature and the satisfaction we can achieve from embracing it. To use an analogy of the brain, natural things in our environment that elicit a certain response are to our senses as neurotransmitters are to our receptors, but such an analogy probably relates only to the most basic of effects natural things have on us. Other endeavors that go against the grain of "human nature" can be novel, fulfilling, and enlightening, but to forsake the pursuit of following your instincts and "nature" (which can mean almost anything) would be a mistake.
Natural Things
Consider the natural things,
with their soft round edges.
the natural things
that strike chords which echo
through the tangled cave of your mind.
Before you know a natural thing,
you love it.
Deeply you hunger for wordless nature,
before you have known a natural thing.
With a natural thing you find yourself,
Immersed,
And it is the easiest thing in the world.
Before you have felt a natural thing.
Natural things can go unnoticed,
and I can dance for a time on a steel beam,
but shovel earth's coal into your furnace,
and filled with wonders your life will be.
Natural Things
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