Books by the old Leather Chair

  • Snow In The Summer
  • My Bible
  • The Power of Silence
  • What Comes Next and to Like It
  • Encore Provence
  • A Year in Provence

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Bleeding Heart

I know a bleeding heart plant that has thrived
for over sixty years if not more, and has never
missed a spring without rising and spreading
itself into a glossy bush, with many red
hearts dangling. Don't you think that deserves
a little thought? The woman who planted it
has been gone for a long time, and everyone
who saw it in that time has also died or moved
away and so, like so many stories, this one can't
get finished properly. More delicious, anyway, is to
remember my grandmother's pleasure when
the dissolve of winter was over and the green
knobs appeared and began rise, and create
their many hearts.

One would say she was a simple woman, made
happy by simple things. I think this was true.
And more than once, in my long life,
I have wished to be her.

~~Mary Oliver~~


This One Woman could write something very similar about plants and her grandmother's.....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought similar thoughts yesterday, driving home from my mother-in-law's house. The sun was setting, when I said aloud to my husband, "What an old world we live in! That same sun that rises and sets has lit the world for many, many people across the ages; and where we come and go, it goes on and on, constantly shining on some part of the world."

I was sad, from thinking of all those in my orbit battling cancer -- my mother-in-law, an uncle, a former sister-in-law, my new kitchen remodeling contractor -- and these, just off the top of my head. Why is it that we mostly live life like we'll be here forever rather than as the guests we are?

But comfort comes from watching plants rise up out of the dirt each spring and from the sun's rising every morning, and these rising rhythms chase away fears born during the still of the dark night.

I'm often amazed how minds planted in other parts of the world and time can share similar thoughts.

Janell

Laura said...

Beautiful...makes me think of my father's garden.

the wild magnolia said...

Something that has thrived and brought along to us the happiness to hear of it again. Mary Oliver, she is one of the best.

This was a new poem for me. Thank you, for sharing.

Wishing all good things to settle in your life.

Be blessed and happy in your life. Take care of you.

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

Janell, LauraX and Sandra, thank you so very much for visiting.
You are special....

Balisha said...

I love Mary Oliver's poetry too.
I checked my Bleeding Heart...it hasn't broken ground yet.. Have a nice evening...Balisha

Beverly said...

I just read an interview Marie Shriver did with her in Oprah Magazine. The Journey was there. I have never read her. I will have to do so....

Sharon said...

Another treasure from Mary Oliver ~ thank you. I have been thinking about my grandmother, who took geraniums and begonias inside in the fall and kept them on windowsills until spring. This was the first winter I tried to keep a geranium, and it has thrived! My grandmother would understand my joy in that.

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

Balisha, Beverly and Sharon, thank you for commenting. Have a great day...