Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Speaking to me..

The Summer Day
Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Everything about this poem speaks to me. From "pale forearms" of the grasshopper to the "wild and precious life". The part about not knowing how to pray and kneeling in the grass makes me think of you, A.

"What is it you plan to do with your ONE WILD and PRECIOUS life?"

2 comments:

aola said...

oh, I love it.. if I could write poetry this is what I would write

Kristen said...

"Your one wild and precious life"...yes.

RYC-I miss you, too! I have been thinking about you! How are ya?