Mary Oliver
In Blackwater Woods
| Look, the trees | | are turning | | their own bodies | | into pillars | | | | of light, | | are giving off the rich | | fragrance of cinnamon | | and fulfillment, | | | | the long tapers | | of cattails | | are bursting and floating away over | | the blue shoulders | | | | of the ponds, | | and every pond, | | no matter what its | | name is, is | | | | nameless now. | | Every year | | everything | | I have ever learned | | | | in my lifetime | | leads back to this: the fires | | and the black river of loss | | whose other side | | | | is salvation, | | whose meaning | | none of us will ever know. | | To live in this world | | | | you must be able | | to do three things: | | to love what is mortal; | | to hold it | | | | against your bones knowing | | your own life depends on it; | | and, when the time comes to let it | | go, | to let it go.
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This is all so beautiful, am. The music, the poem, and that sunset rainbow. Thank you for all of this.
ReplyDeleteThat poem! I am holding on.
ReplyDeleteI love that poem and Mary Oliver in general.
ReplyDeleteThose last two stanzas pierced me. Thank you.
ReplyDelete