Mother Nature in a Pebble's Story

In class today we had some great conversations about Mr. Ammons' poems. They are indeed different and his style is very polarizing. Many students were not a fan of his long book poems, but I believe the shorter ones were received much better. The one that I believe has a direct relationship with science in particular is "Pebble's Story". It is essentially a very short poem that uses 4 lines and only two distinct words. It reads

Wearing away
wears

wearing
away away.

This is the erosion process rocks go through due to wind, water, and other elements. The rock is constantly being broken down by nature while another is being built up. Its a continuous circle that repeats itself. The true genius of the poem is how he was able to convey a message that takes up 100s of pages in science books in a simple mannerism. Part of the beauty of science is that their is a complicated jargon filled version that gets you published and studied, and a simple version that helps people understand.