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

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Life

As for life
I'm humbled,
I'm without words
sufficient to say

how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over,

Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective

It suffices, it is all comfort..
along with human love,

stopping and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come

and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves,
As for death, I can't wait to be the hummingbird,
can you?

~~Mary Oliver~~ in part from Long Afternoon at the edge of Little Sister Pond~~

9 comments:

Sky said...

lovely. she is just a treasure.

the wild magnolia said...

I am trilled to read this Mary Oliver poem, a new one for me.

Thank you for the beauty photo and words.

Wishing you a good health and happy weekend.

Judy said...

Really beautiful poem. I have never heard of her before. have a great weekend.

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

Sky, Sandra and Judy - Mary Oliver speaks to my heart..Thanks for visiting.

mermaid said...

Oh what a beautiful poem!

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

Dear Kaveri, thank you for visiting on this scorching hot afternoon :)

Barbara Blundell said...

Squirrels !!! I have nurtured a hazel nut tree for twelve years and for the first time last year there was a bumper crop. Alas we didn't get to harvest one ! The squirrels stripped the tree before the nuts were ripe and left them scattered all over the garden!!
Bah Humbug !

Sharon said...

Mary Oliver's appreciation for all that life has to offer is always a wake-up call for me to do the same. Sky is right when she says she is a treasure. Thank you for sharing.

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

Barbara and Sharon, thank for visiting. Yes, squirrels not my favorite - but the Mary Oliver poem is:)