Speaking

Speaking

I take him outside
under the tree,
have him stand on the ground.
We listen to the crickets,
cicadas, million years old sound.
Ants come by us.
I tell them,
“This is he, my son.
This boy is looking at you.
I am speaking for him.”

The crickets, cicadas,
the ants, the million of years
are watching us,
hearing us
My son murmurs infant words,
speaking, small laughter
bubbles from him.
Tree leaves tremble.
They listen to this boy
speaking for me.

Simon J. Ortiz                                                                                             

I am not going to research the poet this time and just see what I can come up with without any background information. The title of the poem "Speaking" is a present tense verb that signifies an action being taken place, which suggests that the poem is a sort of ever-lasting 'experience' or happening. The poem is told in first person where the narrator is definitely older than the person he takes outside. This hypothesis is made based on the line "have him stand on the ground". The speaker takes a small child who is not fully capable of walking out by himself and helps him make contact with the ground. The pronounce "I" changes into a "we", suggesting that since the child and the narrator are both standing on the ground, they are one and together. The fact that they are outside but are able to listen to the cicadas, whose sounds are million years old, depicts a scene that is within nature. In that setting, the speaker talks to ants, a very unusual thing, and uses the word 'speaking', which highlights the quote as it holds a larger meaning. Changing to the second stanza, the roles reverse and it is the crickets, cicadas, and ants that watches and listens to the people. This isn't really a personification because animals and insects can hear and watch, but the context gives the insects a greater role in the poem as they are in the position of being observers. However, it is interesting to note that the insects actually listen to the small child who doesn't actually know how to speak and are engrossed in what he is saying. Even the trees show a response by trembling. The role reversal is, therefore, not only with the insects and humans but also with the speaker and the child. The child who cannot or does not know how to speak the language is able to communicate with nature through his innocent and pure laughter. He is transmitting the pureness of society, something that his father cannot convey. Although I am not confident in the message of the poem, I think the main essence involves nature and innocence. The speaker also gives importance to insects, something that people don't give a second thought to. The stressing of the 'million of years' heighten that importance of insects because long existence connects with accumulation of wisdom. The speaker, I think, values insects a lot and the fact that he takes his child out to see the insects and talk to them shows how he wants the child to grow up having value for insects. Therefore, the poem incites the message of a connection between the human world and insects, a connection that needs to be valued and kept. The father-son generation illustration also shows the continual cycle of the meeting between nature and humans. Also, as an additional note, the reason why nature is listening to the speaker through the son may be because the child has not be influenced by society yet and can communicate the purest form of message to nature.