Reflection

This poem, about the Concrete Jungle, was most directly inspired by Christian Bök's Crystallography. Though I didn't directly consult the book at any time, I took stylistic inspiration from his scientific, precise poetry. This approach was tempered by my subject matter; whereas he had a cold, impersonal manner to depict the lifeless nature of chemistry, a poem about cities and nature would have to balance that with a more organic form. My other references were to verify the definitions of various terms and to find apposite words. The title was a pun on cytopoiesis, a term for the creation of cells, in order to liken the creation of new cities to cells, to compare each tree planted to another node in a neural network, and to show the idea of a city composed of cells. I've been writing poetry for several years now and I find that for more abstract, heartfelt ideas, it's a better mode than prose, since it usually leaves more open to the reader, while conveying precisely my feelings. In writing the poem, I found myself trying to figure the exact ideal role of each part of an ecosystem, something I've never considered beyond the broad base categories: scavenger, predator, &c.