Lake Bonny Park Field Trip

Before class on Tuesday, April 5, you will need to visit Lake Bonny Park. The park is off Bartow Rd., directly across from Lakeland High School, about five minutes from Southeastern: see map.

The purpose of this activity is to give you yet another opportunity to undertake the spiritual practice of paying attention, which is a practice of poets like Mary Oliver and of theologians like St. Augustine.

The instructions are as follows:

• Reread one of the nature poems of your choice of those we've discussed in class or of the ones that will be discussed the following class (one of the poems from Mary Oliver or Robert Hass).
• Go preferably in the morning or evening when it is cool.
• Find a quiet place to sit or stand in nature.
• Be still, be quiet, pay attention, watch, and listen.
• Go alone or go with someone else. If you go with someone, do not spend much time talking.
• Stay at the park for a minimum of 45 minutes; stay still for at least fifteen minutes.
• Don't read or write during the fifteen minutes of stillness.
• Write a nature poem of your own at least 20 lines (or several shorter poems adding up to that much). 
• In addition to meeting the prompt, include your poem in your post for the next class. Since writing these poems is part of this field trip, they do not count towards the 300 word minimum for the post.
• Also, include in that post the following statement: "I went to Lake Bonny Park for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes." If you were there for less time, indicate the amount of time you were there for.