Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Simon J. Ortiz’s "Poet" is a playful yet deeply meditative exploration of time, storytelling, and the nature of poetry itself. Through humor, conversational exchanges, and references to deep history, Ortiz questions what it means to be a poet and how language, memory, and even the natural world are all part of an ancient and ongoing creative act. The poem’s seemingly casual tone masks a profound reflection on the continuity of human expression, stretching from prehistoric times to the present moment.

The poem opens with a direct, almost skeptical question: "Are you really a poet?" The response—"Shore."—is humorous and offhanded, setting a tone of irony and self-awareness. The line that follows—"Crickets always talk like that."—introduces a surreal element, suggesting either that the questioner is a cricket or that crickets, like poets, speak in an ambiguous, indirect way. This play on language immediately aligns the poet’s voice with something elemental and enduring—just as crickets have been chirping for millennia, so too have poets been engaged in an ancient practice of song and storytelling.

The poem then shifts into a long, time-traveling meditation: "A couple nights after, I listened for a long time to a couple reminding themselves about 10 million years ago in some cave in Asia." The phrase "reminding themselves" is significant—it suggests that memory stretches far beyond individual lifetimes, that there is an unbroken lineage of human consciousness reaching back into deep time. The cave setting evokes the origins of art, storytelling, and music. These ancient ancestors "rattled membranes together and sang all night long," a vivid image that could refer to early drumming, vocalization, or even the birth of poetry itself.

A parallel moment unfolds: "Later on, there was another cave. A woman was moaning, and later she was laughing, not very far from a glacier’s edge." The presence of both pain and joy—"moaning" and "laughing"—suggests the full spectrum of human experience. The glacier places this moment in the Ice Age, reinforcing the poem’s vast temporal scope. The following line—"To the south were swaying grasses, brightly colored birds, warm oceans, hot deserts, and strange gods who demanded nothing."—contrasts the cold north with the abundance of the south, perhaps drawing on the way different environments shape cultural and spiritual understandings. The "strange gods who demanded nothing" stand in stark contrast to later human conceptions of divinity, hinting at an earlier, freer way of existing in the world.

The poem then returns to a more personal exchange: "She asked me if I liked crickets. I said, / 'Yeah, but not cockroaches.'” This seemingly lighthearted moment continues the motif of crickets as poetic voices. The speaker’s distinction between crickets and cockroaches introduces a subtle reflection on beauty and revulsion, on what we choose to accept and reject. The woman’s response—"Maybe, but not too close."—suggests both humor and ambiguity, as if the relationship between poetry and the less desirable aspects of language or storytelling is not so easily defined.

The speaker then expresses a desire for certainty: "I want to look it up somewhere, but ten million years is a hell of a long time to really clear it up." This line underscores the poem’s central tension—how can one verify history, relationships, or even language itself when human memory is so limited? The desire to "look it up" contrasts with the poem’s earlier assertion that people have been "reminding themselves" of ancient history, suggesting that knowledge is as much felt and passed down through storytelling as it is documented in books.

The final line—"How long you been a cricket?"—returns to the playful and surreal. Here, the question turns back on the poet, linking them once again to the cricket, the ancient singer, the storyteller who has been present throughout time. The poem ends on this ambiguous, whimsical note, leaving the reader to consider whether the speaker is referring to themselves, their conversation partner, or all poets who have ever lived.

Ortiz’s use of free verse and conversational dialogue creates a sense of ease, but beneath this surface lies a rich meditation on the continuity of language and poetic tradition. The juxtaposition of prehistoric imagery with everyday humor gives the poem its distinctive voice—one that acknowledges the absurdity of human existence while honoring the depth and weight of artistic expression.

"Poet" ultimately suggests that poetry is not just a modern or intellectual practice, but a fundamental part of what it means to be human. From the caves of early civilization to the conversations of today, poetry, like the chirping of crickets, persists—an unbroken song across time. Ortiz invites the reader to see the poet not as a singular figure, but as part of a lineage stretching back millions of years, a voice among many in the long, ongoing act of making meaning from sound.

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