Staying Amazed
I'm trying to remember when and where I first read my first Mary Oliver poem. I think it was about 16 or 17 years ago in Orion Magazine. Since then I have collected several of her books and written many lines in my heart. When I walked around Lost Lagoon last Sunday morning, I recalled some of these lines, never dreaming she would die a few days later. (I also thought of my dear friend, Katharine, who died in August 2016. She, too, was poet, and she, too, loved Mary Oliver.)
I know I'm among a grateful multitude when I say Mary Oliver has deepened my appreciation of and reverence for the natural world.
Thank you, Mary, for your life and sharing your gifts with us.
Mindful
by MARY OLIVER
Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for—
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant—
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these—
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?