Analysis of Robert Creely's Poem "Oh No"

The poem “Oh No”, written by Robert Creely has gained much controversy. The question that arises while reading is what location the author is referring to. What comes to mind is a human’s experience of life after death. Creely describes a wonderful place that people want to end up once their lives come to an end. Through Creely’s explanation about this final destination, we are able to infer that he is writing about heaven. The first two lines are “If you wander far enough you will come to it.” In these lines the author tells the audience that if you go through life, you will one day die and be accepted into heaven. The wandering refers to living your life. If you wander far enough you will end up dying someday. Then when you die, you will live your afterlife in heaven. Heaven is what the “it” stands for. The next two lines are “and when you get there they will give you a place to sit.” These two lines are describing the arrival to heaven. When the author says “they” he is talking about God and the angels. He is telling us that we are given somewhere to sit to relax. Heaven as we know it is a peaceful place. We are able to sit down after a long journey through life to relieve stress and pain. After that he writes “for yourself only, in a nice chair,” which shows that everyone gets their own chair to sit. Everyone receives a nice chair for themselves because everyone is treated equally in heaven. God sees everyone the same. No one human is better than another in God’s eyes. All the people in heaven deserve their own chair. It is not because we are selfish, but because we are all created equal. We should all be rewarded with a place to sit and enjoy heaven after going through our difficult lives. The following line states “and all your friends will be there.” This means that all friends and family, that have passed away earlier, will also be there. People are reunited with all of their loved ones. The afterlife in heaven is supposedly a wonderful place where