Week 5, 6 Writing — Erin Kasiou
The poem discussed in this essay can be found here.
In the natural world, even the smallest things can be of great importance to the ecosystems they inhabit. Indeed, it is the bee which pollinates the plant, enabling the growth of forests. Even humanity’s agricultural crops are dependent on the bee. This idea is the crux of my eco-concept, scintillessentialism, which is a word describing the importance of the tiniest elements of nature. It is derived from the word ‘scintilla,’ which means ‘a tiny trace or spark of a specified quality or feeling,’ and the word essential. Tim Seibles’ poem Magnifying Glass inspired the development of this concept through its exploration of the ease with which humanity disregards the ant, assuming its death to be inconsequential on account of its tiny stature. The repetition of this question of the ant’s insignificance paradoxically suggests disregard for its true importance. As such, Seibles' text encapsulates the essence of scintillessentialism, the importance of the small.
It is true that the smallest animals tend to be disregarded. How often does one check the sidewalk for tiny bugs before each footfall? Indeed, this sentiment is the topic of Seibles’ Magnifying Glass, which muses on the lack of consequences following the killing of an ant. This subject matter is evident in the anaphoric motif of unaccountability for the ant’s death, present at the beginning of each stanza: ‘No one / would burn / your name / for not seeing / the ant’s / careful antennae… No / one should / mark your soul / short if you / mash one…’ (Seibles 2016). The repeated emphasis of the insignificance of this action reinforces its commonality. It is an action all human beings can relate to, killing a small bug, be it accidental or purposeful. The widespread nature of this is reinforced by the direct reference to ‘Raid’ in the lines ‘Who would / curse your life / if you bring out / the Raid?’ (Seibles 2016). ‘Raid’ functions as a genericised term for bug spray, the widespread ownership of which is representative of the widespread disregard for the lives of these tiny creatures. Such a sentiment is captured in a similar poem by Robert Wrigley, Little Deaths, in the lines ‘How easy it is to live with / little deaths — mostly bugs, / the less musical birds, the cats / and rabbits we can’t avoid in our cars.’ (Wrigley 1993). Clearly, at its surface, both poems encourage the reader to consider closely their own experiences with disregard for the small lives they encounter.
The free-form verse of the poem mimics the train of thought of the individual, in considering the importance or unimportance of the life of this little bug. Further thought is modelled by the repetition of rhetorical questions, including ‘... Do they / sleep? Do they / dream / anything?’ and ‘How many / books have they / read?...’ (Seibles 2016). These function to evaluate the importance of the ant’s life, significantly through an anthropocentric lens. They assume value is derived through proximity to humanity, the most ‘sophisticated’ of species. This concept is reinforced by the comparison of the ant’s physicality to humans, such as in the lines ‘...when / two ants meet / there’s no tongue / for hello…’ which devalues the ant’s capacity for sophisticated communication, as well as ‘...that / brain a virtual / speck.’ which undermines its intellect (Seibles 2016). However, it is problematic to assume the ant’s value only through its anthropocentric qualities. Jackson and Ratnieks (2006) document the ‘remarkable richness and sophistication in ant foraging communication’ in their paper ‘Communication in ants’; this foraging knowledge being undoubtedly more advantageous to the ant’s ecological niche than their consumption of literature. Thus, the absurd nature of these correlations fosters the reader’s consideration of the ant’s true value, paradoxically suggesting a deeper importance than the poem initially implies.
Finally, the ignorance of humanity to the ant’s true importance is subtly suggested by the poem, through the direct second-person address in the lines ‘...what do / they want, / you ask — unaware / that they breathe / through their / sides’ (Seibles 2016). The italicised question ‘what do they want’ combined with the diction of ‘unaware’ highlights this lack of consideration of the ants value, whilst the reference to the spiracles through which they breathe functions to suggest the lack of research undertaken by the reader to determine this value. Reading this poem through the lens of scintillessentialism thus encourages the reader to reconsider the importance of this tiny creature and perhaps research as such. It is the tiny ant which drags the seeds of plants into the soil and eats away at their exterior, allowing them to take root. The ant’s movement through the soil permits the diffusion of oxygen and water to the seeds, allowing them to germinate (Ecological Importance n.d.). Scintillessentialism aims to capture this significance at its most central; the ant is important, yes, but in light of understanding its role it is evident that each tiny step it takes through the soil, each seed it transports, is of importance to its surrounding ecosystem as well. This knowledge directly answers one of the questions posed by Seibles’ poem; ‘...Is all they carry / really work / or just some / dumb old daily / ado?’ (Seibles 2016). The italicising of ‘really’ and the diction of ‘dumb’ undermines one of the most important actions the ant performs, the aforementioned transportation of seeds. Thus it paradoxically serves to highlight their essential nature to learned readers. This is why I chose the word ‘scintilla’ for my concept, as opposed to something like ‘little’ or ‘tiny’. To reiterate, as ‘a tiny trace or spark of a specified quality or feeling,’ it thus suggests the importance not only of a small thing, but of each small action, each small thought or feeling, in shaping the ecological world. Not simply for the ant, but for all creatures, even the thoughts and actions of humanity. All is an essential element of nature.
Seibes’ poem therefore functions as a thought experiment into the importance of the tiny elements of nature, encouraging readers to reconsider their mindless disregard for the lives of even the smallest ants. In this way, it inspired the development of my e-concept of scintillessentialism, the importance of each tiny element of the natural world, however barely present.
References
Ecological Importance n.d., Harvard Forest, accessed 19 April 2021, <https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/ants/ecological-importance#:~:text=Ants%20play%20an%20important%20role,oxygen%20to%20reach%20plant%20roots.&text=These%20seeds%20often%20sprout%20and,food%20for%20many%20different%20organisms>
Jackson, Duncan E & Ratnieks, Francis L.W 2006, ‘Communication in ants’, Current biology, vol. 16, no. 15, pp. R570–R574.
Seibles, T 2016, Magnifying Glass, Poetry Foundation, accessed 19 April 2021, <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/58653/magnifying-glass>
Wrigley, R 1993, Little Deaths, Poetry Foundation, accessed 19 April 2021, <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=162&issue=1&page=37>
