Mowing

On the surface, “Mowing” may be about a woman watching a man cut grass, but these are emblems of how he tries to control the nature of the world and the way the woman tries to control her inner nature. As her neighbor succeeds in tidying the grass, the speaker concludes she cannot fully control her mind. Her inner nature, meaning her mental activity, parallels the outer activity of the man mowing the lawn. Both move in circles, the man circling the trees, the speaker using repeating phrases to circle around certain ideas.

“Mowing” incorporates qualities of traditional meditative practices, including repetition, attention to an image or focal point, self-reflection, and self-awareness. It is replete with images that connote meditation, specifically circles: evening, stillness, and the desire to “disappear” (Line 10). Practitioners of meditation focus the mind on a single point to reduce thinking. By reducing identification with one’s thoughts, you can “disappear” from the world and from the ego.

Limón holds this space of peace against its corollary—the state of wanting. Merely wishing to be a tree instead of a crow is to recognize that human nature will always want something else.