On cold evenings
my grandmother,
with ownership of half her mind
– the other half having flown back to Bohemia –spread newspapers over the porch floor
so, she said, the garden ants could crawl beneath,
as under a blanket, and keep warm,and what shall I wish for, for myself,
but, being so struck by the lightning of years,
to be like her with what is left, that loving.– Mary Oliver from New and Selected Poems: Volume Two
Tag: mary oliver
Mary Oliver: The Other Kingdoms
Consider the other kingdoms.
– Mary Oliver
The trees, for example, with their mellow-sounding
titles: oak, aspen, willow.
Or the snow, for which the peoples of the north
have dozens of words to describe its
different arrivals. Or the creatures, with their
thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze.
Their infallible sense of what their lives
are meant to be. Thus the world
grows rich, grows wild, and you too,
grow rich, grow sweetly wild, as you too
were born to be.
Mary Oliver: Someone I loved
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.
– Mary Oliver, The Uses of Sorrow
Mary Oliver: I worried
“I Worried”
Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.
Mary Oliver: Instructions for living a life
Instructions for living a life
. Mary Oliver
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.