WISE WORDS

"Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light."

~Mary Oliver~ 

1935 - 2019

WISE WORDS

OLD FAVORITE - PART 4

When I Am Among the Trees

by 

Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
   but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

A POEM ON THE GRASS GROWING

On Not Mowing the Lawn

by 

Mary Oliver

 From her book of poems,

"Blue Horses"

Let the grass spring up tall, let its roots sing

And the seeds begin their scattering.

Let the weeds rejoin and be prolific throughout.

Let the noise of the mower be banished, hurrah!

Let the path become where I choose to walk, and not otherwise established.

Let the goldfinches be furnished their humble dinner.

Let the sparrows determine their homes in security.

Let the honeysuckle reach as high as my window, that it may look in.

Let the mice fill their barns with a sufficiency.

Let anything created,

 that wants to creep or leap forward, be able to do so.  

Let the grasshopper have gliding space.

Let the noise of the mower be banished, yes, yes.

Let the katydid return and announce himself in the long evenings.

Let the blades of grass surge back from the last cutting.

Or if you want to be poetic, the leaves of grass.

WISE WORDS...

Said the river: imagine everything 

you can imagine, then keep on going.

~Mary Oliver~

RUNNING THE GAUNTLET?

So here we are again, the pathway blocked by the indomitable Canada Goose.  No, I didn't feel like I was going to be running a gauntlet today.  They all looked quite content, so I put my best foot forward, and enjoyed them as I slowly walked by, albeit a little cautiously.

What can I say?  I love them, always have, always will.

They stared and I stared...

and took photos of course.

Hello beautiful!

"Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed."

~Mary Oliver~

TO BE GOING ON WITH, A POEM AND A CABIN IN THE YUKON

"I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence.  It's said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered.  That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood.  Slowly, no doubt.  I'm not talking about a vacation.

Of course at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am.

Are you following me?"

~Mary Oliver~

from her book of poems, 

"A Thousand Mornings"

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets, maybe my all time favorite.


(My photo was taken at the Tagish Lake Kennels in the Yukon, on our side trip into Canada. The cabin was on their property.)

A DOG AND A QUOTE

"Because of the dog's joyfulness, our own is increased.  It is no small gift.  It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born.  What would the world be like without music or rivers or green and tender grass?  What would this world be like without dogs?"

~Mary Oliver~

A POEM

~The Sun by Mary Oliver~

Have you ever seen anything in your life

more wonderful than the way the sun,

every evening, relaxed and easy, floats towards 
the horizon and into the clouds or the hills,

or the rumpled sea and is gone ---

and how it slides again out of the blackness, 
each morning, on the other side of the world,

like a red flower streaming upward on 
its heavenly oils, say, on a morning in 
early summer, at its perfect imperial distance ---

and have you ever felt for anything such wild love ---

Do you think there is anywhere, in any language,

a word billowing enough for the pleasure

that fills you as the sun reaches out, as it 
warms you as you stand there, empty-handed ---

or have you too turned from the world ---

or have you too gone crazy 
for power, for things?